Icthyo Reignition
by ULTRA SONIC
Summary: Follow up to The DT Express. A mysterious power source has been discovered by someone, but both the Rangers and Mesogog have learned of it as well, and now it's become a full blown race to see who will get the power source first...
1. 75 million years ago

Disclaimer: I am not Bob Iger, therefore I don't own Disney and therefore I don't own the rights to Power Rangers. However, if I did, I would've decreed that the very plot and character elements that were in Power Rangers in Space, as well as in Disney's Gargoyles, would be implemented in the series.

--

Prologue-75 Million years ago…

75 million years ago…

Long before the first caveman ever came into existence, and back when the only common mammals were small rat-like creatures…dinosaurs ruled the earth.

While they had already been around for millions of years, it was during a time in their era where these animals truly were in their heyday. All over the world herbivores and carnivores of every kind were flourishing in a way they never did in the past two periods before. It was also during a time where some of the fiercest, as well as some of the most well-known dinosaurs had come into existence.

In all, if one could actually see it for themselves, one could easily think that these creatures would be around for a long time to come still.

But it wouldn't be so.

Because even though these creatures were indeed in their heyday, their heyday was unfortunately a calm before the storm.

For far deep out in space, a piece of rock about 10 miles wide was hurtling through space at an incredible speed. While that wasn't unusual, for other asteroids had hurtled through space before and either ended up hitting other planets, Earth's moon, or even the sun, this one unfortunately, was on a path that would ultimately bring it in contact with Earth. While it wasn't the first asteroid to impact Earth, it would pretty much be the one that would change the course of history.

However, though it appeared like any other asteroid, there was one difference that set it apart from the others. For inside the rock itself, there were six strangely colored gemstones embedded in its side.

The stones had actually been placed there not too long ago by an advanced humanoid race from Eltaire, a planet in a galaxy far away from Earth's. War had broken out horribly between Eltaire and some other neighboring planets in that galaxy at that time, and it didn't take long for everyone on that planet to realize that the galaxy was slowly becoming more and more dangerous. However, despite this, they weren't about to give up hope, especially since the Morphing Masters, a team of sage-warriors that Eltaire had assembled, were fighting valiantly against their oppressors and had been successful in slowing down Dark Specter's attempt to take over their galaxy and then ultimately, the rest of the universe. However, as the years went by dark forces began to grow and become more powerful, and as such new powers would have to be created. But to make sure Dark Specter and his forces would not try to take the powers/weapons that had been created specifically to fight them (for they had tried many unsuccessful attempts to steal them), the power sources/munitions would be discreetly hidden in different parts of the universe or hidden among the sage-warrior's families.

One sage-warrior in particular, decided to venture out into the borders of the Milky Way Galaxy to hide some of the power sources and once there he, with the help of his best friend (who would later become his wife) hid them in a rock in the outer asteroid belt. Since the power sources were made out of the same minerals as the rocks themselves, it would be pretty difficult for anyone to find them should they trace them here.

Once the two were sure the power sources were hidden well, they returned back to their own galaxy to assist their friends, not really thinking much about the rock they hid the six power sources in, other than believing that they would be safe.

Ultimately Eltaire won and had beaten Dark Specter's forces so severely he had to withdraw them, but he was far from admitting defeat and as such he vowed one way or another that he would get his revenge on them somehow, regardless if it took years, decades, centuries, or even a millennia.

So while the people of Eltaire helped with the recovery efforts and later celebrated their victory…other events were about to unfold.

Sometime later, the asteroid with the six gemstones had collided with another asteroid, knocking it off its orbit around the galaxy and sending it literally, on its way and into the solar system itself.

At first it was traveling at a slow, steady speed, but then as it passed different planets the gravity on those planets caused its speed to pick up and by the time it passed Mars, it was moving blindingly fast.

Now the gems that were inside the rock were completely unaffected by the impact made by the other rock or even the speed, but when it hit the other rock part of its side had cracked slightly and was a little loose. Fortunately the six gems were still firm enough embedded in the rock to where they didn't come loose at all.

But as the asteroid approached the asteroid belt that bisected through part of the solar system it hit several rocks like a bowling ball as it passed through it, knocking other rocks out of their usual orbit and causing them to be caught up in its gravity and "follow" along with it.

Unfortunately, because of the impact made by the first asteroid years ago, one of the stones was partially exposed to the outside at the time, and once the asteroid smashed through the belt the gemstone, along with part of the asteroid itself, literally broke off from the rest of the rock and drifted away.

Within the next few weeks the asteroid reached Earth, and once it touched the atmosphere it streaked across the night sky like none ever seen before. In some ways, it looked as if part of the sky itself was on fire.

As it streaked, some more parts of the asteroid began to peel away and break off, namely from the side where the gems were embedded in. Ultimately the heat from crossing the atmosphere caused some more parts of the rock to peel off, exposing two gems to the outside air. Shortly after it passed the atmosphere and entered the sky the gems got loose and broke off from the asteroid, leaving only three gems remaining inside it, which fortunately were a little embedded toward the center slightly, so even as some of the asteroid's parts peeled off, the three gems weren't exposed to the outside and as a result didn't get loose and fall off.

Once the asteroid hit, it erupted with a force equal to that of 10,000 nuclear weapons many times over. Every living creature within 90 miles of the impact site were killed instantly and loads of dust, dirt, and soot started to kick up into the air. At first the dust remained within the 90-mile radius around the rock, but as time went by the dust began to grow and spread out across areas that weren't affected by the impact, and ultimately, the whole world.

Strangely enough, however, in the moment that the asteroid hit Earth, all six gems had somehow reacted to the impact and when the mushroom-cloud appeared in the sky, the energies inside the gems (the ones in the asteroid, the ones that had fallen someplace on earth, and even the one in space) had somehow activated and released energy waves that followed after the waves from the blast itself had been emitted. The waves from the five gems didn't travel far, for it seemed that once they had reached a dinosaur (dead or dying), the energy waves from the gems dissipated completely. However, the wave from the sixth one continued on, and surprisingly enough, the energy wave had reached Earth but it dissipated not too long after it touched the ocean.

When Earth was completely blanketed in dust and dirt, it was ultimately the beginning of the end for the dinosaurs, and as time passed, they all slowly began to die out until finally the last dinosaur took its last breath.

Though there was a nasty crater left behind by the asteroid when it hit, as time went by and continents shifted and new land was formed, as well as life beginning anew, the crater began to appear less and less until finally it was practically invisible.

The asteroid had indeed destroyed an entire world as well as many lives, but in return it also gave rise for a new race to come into being, evolve, and become the new dominant species of Earth: The human race.

As for the gems themselves, the three that were still in the asteroid would remain buried along with what was left of it until Paleontologists uncovered the rock millions of years later, and an up and coming Paleontologist by the name of Dr. Tommy Oliver would discover them and find himself drawn back to the power he thought he had left behind years ago and awaken three young teenagers to their destiny, as well as re-igniting his own when the fourth gem was discovered.

The fifth one unfortunately, would ultimately be found by a mutant dinosaur named Mesogog, who would then experiment on the gem itself for a time and place an encoding on it so it would be easier to harness its power. His alter-ego's adopted son however, unintentionally found it, and because of the dark encoding on the gem he transformed into a complete opposite of himself and almost destroyed his friends on more than a few occasions. Fortunately though, through a series of events he would eventually break free from the gem's control and join his friends and his teacher in the battle against Mesogog.

But as for the sixth one…it still continues to drift through space, with the gem still waiting for its rightful owner to take up its power.

However, judging by the slight change in Mars and Earth's orbit, as well as a few other minor things, that time may be nearing soon…


	2. Going back to basics with discoveries

AN: Avast ye, mateys! I have returned! Now after having hung out with the great Captain Jack Sparrow and crossed blades with scalawags like Barbossa and Davy Jones (not to mention chatting with the lovely Elizabeth Swann (sigh)), I believed it was time to return back to my digs and continue me work.

And if any of ye are interested in seekin' more of the treasure that is Tommy/Kat, be sure to check out Zeopurple's, Moonpower's, and Purple strobe's fics as well, if ye haven't already. I'm sure they'll be more than enough to whet your appetite, savvy?

--

Chapter 1-Going back to basics, with out-of-the-sky discoveries

Teenagers grudgingly stepped out of the school buses as they stopped in front of the high school. Winter break was now officially over, and that meant back to getting up early once again for both students and teachers. Some students, not being early people at all, still looked like half-zombies as they entered the school grounds, rubbing the tiredness out of their eyes as they walked to their first period classes.

Fortunately for Ethan though, that wasn't the case.

_Well, winter break may be over, but that doesn't mean winter itself is._ Ethan thought as he stepped out of his bus, adjusting his denim jacket as he headed for the school.

"Hey Ethan!"

Ethan turned around and saw Kira, Trent, and Conner heading in his direction from the student parking lot.

"What's up guys?" Ethan asked as he greeted his friends.

"Oh, nothing much, except maybe helping 'Sleepy the dwarf' here stay awake while he was driving us here." Kira replied sarcastically as they headed for 1st period.

"Guys, I told you, I'm wide awake now." Conner protested as he blinked his eyes and opened them widely to show that he was. "See?"

"True, but if we hadn't told you to stop at that stop sign a couple streets back, you probably would've hit that pickup, and you would've totaled your car up in more ways than you would have realized." Trent pointed out.

"Okay, but did you two have to scream it in my ear?" Conner asked as he rubbed his right ear a bit.

"Well, you looked pretty zoned out, and we _were_ saying it as loud as we could." Trent said.

"Well, not all of us are morning people." Conner replied. "Except on Christmas Day, though."

The others smiled and nodded in agreement. After the small party at Hayley's on Christmas Eve, everyone pretty much spent the most of winter break with their folks. Even Anton Mercer, who was usually busy the most, had put off time from work to spend time with his son and just get away from work for a little bit while Tommy and Katherine on the other hand went to go see Tommy's folks to spend Christmas Day with them.

Though everyone pretty much was doing their own thing over the break, they still kept in contact with each other, and they all (except Hayley, who was over in New Jersey with her folks) hooked up during New Year's Day along with the rest of Tommy and Kat's friends to hang out and just have fun. Since they were in a central part of California and not to the south of it, there was a little bit of snow and as such many were the times that snowball fights would happen, with some couples ganging up on everybody else and then ultimately a "showdown" between the girls on one side and the guys on the other. Even though the guys outnumbered the women slightly, the snowball fight ended in a draw.

But even despite that, everyone pretty much had a good time.

The four teens had just entered the building where their classroom was in when they saw their teacher/mentor Dr. Oliver entering the building as well.

"Hey Dr. O!" Ethan called out.

"Oh, hi guys." Tommy said. "So I take it you didn't have any trouble going back to getting up at 6:00 AM?"

"Well, I know I didn't, but I'm not so sure about our friendly neighborhood soccer player here though." Ethan said as he gestured slightly to Conner.

"Guys, come on. Could you quit needling me about that already? I'm standing here awake, aren't I?"

"Yeah, you are, but for how long exactly?" Kira asked sarcastically.

Tommy just chuckled. "Come on guys, class is about to start."

Once Conner, Ethan, Trent, and Kira, followed by Dr. Oliver, entered the room Tommy did everything to try and calm down the rest of the students in the room.

"Okay, now if everyone could just settle down, please?"

Everyone then started to quiet down.

"Thank you. Now I know some of you are still half-tired from having to get back to the usual basics again (me being in that same boat) so as such I'm not going to swamp you guys with work today, but what I am going to do though, is have you guys read Chapter 7 for the whole period."

"The entire chapter?" Devin asked.

Tommy nodded. "Yes, but before any of you start to fret, relax. The chapter's only 10 pages long and there isn't really that much material to cover in there, so you shouldn't have much trouble with it. And homework-wise, you only have to do questions 1, 3, 5, and 7…"

--

The rest of the school day pretty much went by as usual, with teens occasionally talking while on the way to class, hanging out during lunch, and once school let out for the day, heading to friend's houses or to Hayley's Cyberspace, which was where the four Rangers were heading off to.

Conner chose to stay behind for a little bit because he wanted to talk to his soccer coach about his practice schedule, as well as a recommendation letter for college, so he told his friends to go on ahead and that he would meet them there once he was done.

A while later, after having finished talking to his coach Conner then headed out of the P.E. building to the walkway that led to the student parking lot.

As he passed the last building the door opened and Krista stepped out, but since Conner had already passed the building, he didn't see her, but she did.

"Conner!"

"Oh, hi Krista." Conner said once he turned around and saw Krista walking towards him.

"Hi," Krista replied. "So what are you still doing here?"

"Oh, I had to talk with my coach about practice and whatnot, and also if he could write me a recommendation letter if he could."

"Oh, that's cool." Krista said.

"So how about you, what are you still doing here?"

"I had to talk with my social studies teacher (who's head of the debate club at school) about a few things (y' know, college and whatnot), but not much else."

Conner nodded. "So, any new…social topics come up or…?"

"No, not really, no." Krista replied. "Right now I'm just focusing on schoolwork and dance. Why the sudden interest?" She asked with a semi-questioning look.

"Uh, well…I'm not, but I was…just wondering, since you were…I mean…"

"Yeah?"

Conner stammered as he tried to answer her, but then after a few seconds he pulled himself together, but he couldn't stop a slight blush from spreading up his neck.

"Just…curious, I guess." He said as remembered Krista wanting to keep the tree from being uprooted to make room for a parking lot and how much it meant to her to prevent it from happening.

Krista smiled at what he said as she looked down somewhat. While she didn't know what made him ask that question, part of her couldn't help but feel slightly elated that he did. "Thanks for asking though, Conner."

"You're welcome." Conner replied, somewhat caught off guard (in a good way) at her thanks as they got to where the parking lot was. "So, do you need a ride or…?"

"Oh, no, it's all right, I'm using my brother's car." Krista replied.

"So was he finally able to get the thing fixed?"

"Oh, yeah." Krista said. "After he got it fixed he told me that he would give me a ride anywhere I wanted to go for the whole month and that I could use it after school (since his classes are early in the morning), so I've got my own wheels for the rest of January."

"Sweet." Conner said.

"Yeah."

As the two continued to keep eye-contact with each other an awkward silence then began to grow around them, and Conner was feeling it badly.

_Don't start getting nervous dude, don't start getting nervous…_

"Well, I have to…get going." Conner said in an uncharacteristically nervous tone.

"Oh, right."

"Yeah." Conner said, hoping there wouldn't be another awkward silence to follow, even though he could feel it in the air.

"Well, I guess I'll…see you tomorrow."

"Ditto." Conner said as he gave Krista a warm smile and headed off toward his car and Krista toward hers, turning around somewhat to look in the other's direction as they headed to their respective cars.

Once Conner got inside his Mustang he then turned on the ignition and headed out of the school grounds. A while later, as he drove on towards the cyber café images of Krista began to unconsciously pop up in his head which made him smile a bit. Though most other girls he had acquainted himself with before would also make him smile, there was just something…different about Krista and the way she made him feel when he was around her. All that, combined with the fact that she was always somehow able to get him nervous and somewhat weak in the knees without even knowing it seemed to somehow draw him to her, which was something new to him since usually he was the one who girls would go weak in the knees over, not the other way around.

_It's official._ He thought to himself. _I've got it bad._

--

_It's closed?_

That question was pretty much floating through Krista's mind as she looked through the glass doors of the dance school and saw nobody in there. When she first showed up at the school a few minutes ago she was surprised that there weren't any cars in the parking lot, for she thought that the teachers would've come back from their winter break, but judging from what she saw from looking through the glass, that wasn't the case.

_Is everyone still on vacation?_

As she turned she then noticed a flyer-type paper taped onto the right door that clearly said, "Important! From Jan. 5th to the 8th Cosmos will be closed. However, we will re-open again on the 10th. Thank you and have a Merry Christmas. Linda Dawson."

_Well, I guess some take longer winter breaks than others._

As she turned to where her car was Krista's cell phone then began to ring incessantly.

"Hello?"

"Krista, hi!"

"Oh, hi mom." Krista said.

"Hi. Look I'm sorry for calling at this time, but I didn't know if you were already at the dance school or not, so…"

"No, it's okay, I'm actually _out_side the dance school." Krista replied.

"Oh, then I'll just be quick…"

"No, mom, it's all right. You can take your time." Krista said. "I'm outside the school because it's closed. And if I read the notice on the door right, it looks like it's going to be closed for the rest of the week."

"Okay." Krista's mom said. "Well, I was calling to ask if you could maybe pick up a half gallon of orange juice after class ended today."

"Don't we have?" Krista asked.

"I thought we did, but…no. Now I don't know if your brother Kevin decided to splurge this past weekend, or if I just forgot last week when I went grocery shopping, but we're out. So, could you maybe…?"

"Yeah, sure. No problem." Krista answered. "Besides, the school's closed today until next week, so yeah, I'll get a move on and head there now."

"Okay, great. Thanks a lot, Krista."

"You're welcome, mom." Krista said. "Bye."

"Bye, sweetheart."

--

A while later, after having gone to Publix and bought the half-gallon of OJ, Krista was on the road on her way back home. Though she was a little disappointed that there weren't any dance classes for the week, she did take some comfort that for the week at least, she had some extra time on her hands.

_At least I'll have time to practice more._ She thought. _And maybe…hang out with Conner a little bit._

Krista almost chuckled at the thought. When she had first met Conner, Reefside High's "King of all jocks", she was not impressed by him one little bit (and was only more put off by him when she had overheard him tell his friend Ethan about pretending to help her with the debacle regarding the tree). However, ever since he had saved her from getting pancaked by a cage and also willingly and genuinely planted a new tree after Zeltrax destroyed the other one, as well as helping her out and talking to her the few times that they would run into each other, Krista couldn't help but begin to wonder if maybe Conner was right about what he had said to her 2 months ago about people stereotyping him as just another "dumb jock" and that there was in fact a lot going on in his life than what most people know (since she thought at the time he was saying it just to say it).

_But…between soccer, school, and hanging out with his buddies at Hayley's, what else could he be possibly be doing?_

As she stopped at a red light Krista then looked up at the afternoon sky, which only had traces of clouds, so the sky was pretty clear.

As she looked up Krista then heard a sound in the air. She couldn't quite place what it was, only that it sounded like a very loud clap, and it seemed to be getting louder and louder with every second.

At first Krista looked on both sides of her car, thinking that maybe someone was playing around with firecrackers someplace, but there was no one else around except herself, and then when she looked out her window she then saw something out of the corner of her eye. She then turned around behind her to get a better view and once she saw what it was her green eyes widened, for up in the sky was what looked like a shooting star, or put more specifically, an asteroid.

It was then that she realized that the clap she heard was the asteroid entering Earth's atmosphere, and the reason the sound was so loud was because it was literally headed towards her or someplace near her.

_Of all times to fully remember Dr. Oliver's lectures, why the hell did it have to be now?_

Switching to park, Krista stepped out of her car and watched as the asteroid began to get closer and closer until finally Krista was able to get a sense of where it was going.

As the rock streaked past her it then impacted a desolate field that was nearby, causing the shockwave from it to literally shake a few trees up and kick up some spare trash lying around into the air along with causing Krista's car to shake up a bit.

Still shocked and amazed by what she saw, Krista then looked to her car and back to where the rock had crashed. Though part of her was telling her to just get in her car and drive off, another part of her was curious and wanted to see what the rock looked like, for even though she was no astronomer, it wasn't everyday that you saw a rock from space crash into Earth, especially if it was near you.

Throwing caution to the wind Krista got in the car and drove towards where the rock hit. Once she was close enough she drove off the highway onto the grass. Once she was in a good enough spot Krista then parked the car, turned off the ignition and stepped out onto the open field. After walking for a little bit she then saw the rock, semi-scorched and smoking in its crater.

It looked about 15 feet wide, and about as tall as two short file cabinets stacked on top of each other, with the typical grooves, crevices, and jagged edges one would expect to see in an asteroid, so as far as Krista could tell, this rock didn't look like anything fancy.

As Krista looked at the rock she then took notice of something on the rock's outside. It didn't look like it was part of the rock itself, but, who was Krista to know?

As she tried to get closer Krista felt herself already begin to sweat bullets from the intense heat coming the rock, but she wanted to get a closer look at what she saw. Then as she stepped closer she found that the asteroid wasn't really as hot as she thought and in fact, it was actually more of the crater itself that was hot, which was really weird.

When Krista was close enough to touch the rock she then saw what it was that was embedded in it. It was a strange looking gemstone that was somehow embedded into the rock itself.

Growing ever more curious Krista then reached her left hand out and tried to touch the gem but no sooner did she touch it did part of the rock with the gem fall off from the rest of the rock, breaking slightly upon hitting the ground, freeing the gemstone.

Reaching down to pick it up Krista then took a closer look at the gem. At first glance it didn't look like anything that would catch someone's eye; the gemstone's color was completely pale-white, as if someone had sucked the gem's actual color out of it somehow, but even despite that, there was something…unique about it, and Krista noticed that when she had picked it up it looked as if it somehow started to glow with a mystical light (or it wanted to anyway), but then the light faded just as quickly, and it turned back to looking like a pale, dull-looking gemstone.

_What is this thing?_ Krista wondered.

Feeling slightly hot (since she was standing on the crater) and not really sure specifically what to do Krista looked around to see if anyone was around, which to her surprise, there wasn't, so she then stepped away from the asteroid itself and back onto the ground, and then headed back to her car, still holding the gem in her hands. Unconsciously she then turned her gaze back to where the asteroid was and then back to the gem.

_Well, I may not know what this thing is, but…it's definitely not something you'd see everyday. _She thought.

Sighing softly to herself Krista then put the gem in her pocket and unlocked the door to her car. As she started the ignition and turned on the car Krista then began to contemplate bringing the gem to Dr. Oliver the next day to see if he could maybe figure out what this gemstone was.

_But then, on the other hand,_ _what if it is just part of a rock and not much else?_

Deciding not to, Krista switched to drive and got back onto the main road back to her house. As she stopped at another stop sign Krista unconsciously reached into her pocket and pulled out the gem, looking at it very closely.

_I mean, other than that eerie-looking light I saw (which probably might have been just sparkling minerals in the gem, or just the sunlight playing tricks on me), it almost looks like any regular piece of rock. Aside from the light and it being a good keepsake, how special could this gem possibly be?_

--

AN: This chapter is one I'm not fond of very much. Y' know, you can picture the scenes going on in ya head as many times as you want, and you know the gist of what the characters are saying/thinking, but when it comes to putting it in words without making it sound wooden or generic, that's pretty tough. Now I don't know if I avoided writing generic lines here, but I'll let you guys read it for yourselves. If you think it needs fixing, let me know (or better yet, e-mail me if the "Submit review" button is giving you attitude (i.e. "Review denied" or "Review Throttle"). It's been doing that to me a lot.).


	3. Gem alert

AN: I went back and made a few adjustments to the last two chapters, so if you want to check them out, go ahead. It wasn't anything big, just a few modifications.

Now I know after the last chapter some of you are probably wondering, "What the hell is he doing?" and the only thing I can say is "Trust me.", I know what I'm doing (or at least I hope I do).

--

Chapter 2-Gem alert

"Lord Mesogog?"

Elsa calmly called out her master's name as she and the White Ranger clone entered the main laboratory/control center of the island fortress. Ever since the Hydro-Regenerator/Geno-Randomizer's control system was damaged (courtesy of Elsa, even though deep down she personally blamed "the blonde slut" for screwing up everything), Mesogog had made it a habit to use his brainwave scrambler on her often and usually without warning, causing Elsa to retreat back to her civilian identity (after doing repairs) with a migraine the size of New York and Reefside combined. Once Elsa had finished repairing the Geno-Randomizer/Hydro-Regenerator, Mesogog then told her explicitly that for the moment, he didn't want her within an inch of the control center or even within his line-of-sight, so Elsa decided to head back to her civilian disguise and keep a low profile until Mesogog contacted her again. Luckily winter break was in full force at the time so it wasn't too difficult, although the idea of seeing people happy during the holiday season or even watching Christmas movies were more than enough to leave a nasty taste in Elsa's mouth.

Now, here she was weeks later, receiving a message from Mesogog telling her get over here as quickly as possible. Elsa wasn't sure what it was about, but she hoped it wasn't for another "brainwave assault" session.

As the cyborg looked around the lab she saw her leader standing by a nearby console, looking at a view-screen and punching in codes.

Under normal circumstances he would've glanced up from what he was doing and acknowledged Elsa with an annoyed look on his reptilian face, but for some reason Mesogog still kept his gaze on the view-screen and continued to punch some keys.

Trying to get his attention and wondering what it was he was looking at Elsa then walked up towards him and said his name a little louder.

"Lord Mesogog…?"

No sooner did Elsa say his name again did a beeping sound emit from the console, and when Elsa looked at the screen she saw a message box appear in the middle of the monitor saying, "Error! Invalid code!"

Mesogog then stopped what he was doing and glared at Elsa with a growl which made her take a few steps back. He then turned back to what he was doing and continued to type. Ultimately the error message closed and then after a few seconds an image of a field by a road appeared on the screen.

"Elsa, the next time you want to get my attention, don't do it when I'm busy." Mesogog hissed as a light began to glow from his forehead as he glared at her.

"Sorry, master. But I didn't know if you had seen me entering the lab or not-"

"I already knew you were here without even having to look up." Mesogog said. "At the very least I know my generals and soldiers well enough to know if they actually are here or not."

"Sorry, my lord." Elsa said.

"Now, as to why I had contacted you earlier and told you to get over here as quickly as possible, it was because just a few moments ago one of our tracking systems had detected an asteroid approaching Earth."

_This is what his urgent message was?_ Elsa questioned. Then when she heard her master say that it was approaching Earth she wondered just how big it was.

"And how large is this asteroid specifically?"

Mesogog gave a small grin. "It isn't large enough by any means to create a cataclysm like another one had 70-odd million years ago, if that's what you were wondering." He answered as he showed Elsa the monitor of where the rock had hit. "Besides, it's already impacted Earth, and judging from these readouts (which you almost made me lose, thank you very much) it ended up impacting a field near an almost desolate highway in Reefside."

Though she could tell that he was intrigued by this, Elsa still couldn't tell what it was Mesogog was getting at. As far as she was concerned, it was just another asteroid that hit Earth. And while granted, its minerals could be of some use, but…then what?

"Lord Mesogog, if I may be so bold, what is it about this rock necessarily that makes it different from the countless ones that have impacted Earth before?"

"Always missing the bigger picture, as usual." Mesogog mused out loud. "That rock Elsa, contains (or should I say, contained) a power source that equals that of what the Rangers have."

"Master, are you saying that there is a dino gem inside that asteroid?" Elsa asked with some barely contained excitement.

"In a matter of speaking, yes." Mesogog replied. "But unfortunately the gem was somehow moved from that spot."

"But the rock is still there, how could…?"

"I'm not sure, but I can sense that the gem was moved from there by someone."

"You believe it may have been one of the Rangers?" Asked the clone.

Mesogog growled and hissed semi-angrily to himself. "No, it wasn't."

"How can you tell?" Elsa asked, clearly forgetting about how Mesogog was able to know how the first three gems were moved from where they were.

Mesogog then glared at Elsa again.

"Use your imagination Elsa, if not your brain." He said before getting back to the subject at hand. "The gem _was_ taken from there, but it wasn't Dr. Oliver or any of his students that found it. If it had, I would have sensed their gems. Someone else had taken the gem, but even knowing that it wasn't any of them…doesn't exactly give me a comfort level."

"Well, at the very least it's only a measly human being and not Dr. Oliver or any of his annoying students." Elsa pointed out. _Or even that tramp, for that matter._

"Indeed." Mesogog agreed. "But still…no reason as to let anything good go to waste."

"So what's the plan?" Elsa asked, already catching the tone in her boss's voice.

"I want you and the White Ranger to go to that area and bring me the asteroid."

"But you said the gem wasn't there anymore." Elsa said.

"Once again, you fail to see the bigger picture." Mesogog said. "It's true that the gem isn't there, but considering the fact that that asteroid recently impacted Earth, and the fact that the gem itself was discovered by someone just recently as well, it's more than likely that there are still some residual gem energies from that area that we can trace once the rock is brought here."

"And what if the Rangers try to butt in? More than likely they probably already know about the asteroid by now."

Exasperated, Mesogog walked over to his general and glared at her square in the eye.

"Do you really want me to explain everything for you?" He asked fiercely. "I'll give you a little hint: Tyrannodrones. Now go and get me that asteroid. I trust you can actually do _that_ much, can't you?"

--

Katherine sipped some lemonade as she paused from looking at her scrapbook, relaxing against one of the cyber café's sofas. Since Cosmos was closed today (and pretty much for the rest of the week) Kat decided to check the rest of the city out and just see the sights a bit. As much as she wanted to have Tommy along (since he had lived in Reefside for a couple of months before she showed up, albeit he only knew the city about as much as she did) she knew that he still had classes to teach. Then after she had lunch at Subway, Kat took a look at her watch which said 2:03. Knowing that school would be letting out soon Kat decided to head over to Hayley's cyberspace and meet Tommy and his students there.

Now, thirty minutes later, after she had a sip Kat looked around the cyber café, amazed that there were still about as many people hanging out, playing games, etc. as there were during the days before winter break kicked in the month before. It was as if it was just another Wednesday in the week and Monday and Tuesday hadn't been holidays at all.

Kat was just about to open her scrapbook again when out of the corner of her eye she saw Tommy, Trent, Ethan, and Kira enter the cyber café. Once Tommy saw where Kat was sitting, he smiled warmly and went over in her direction with his students not too far behind him.

"Hi Kat." Tommy said as he greeted her with a kiss.

"Hi Tommy." Kat said as she kissed him back. "Hi guys." She then said to Tommy's students, who took a seat at a table near the sofa while Tommy sat next to Kat.

"Hi." Replied Tommy students.

"Wait, Kat, don't you teach today?" Kira asked as she snuck a peak at her watch.

"Normally I do, but since Linda's still on vacation, Cosmos is closed for the week, so I still have some time off." Kat asked.

"Oh." Kira said.

"But speaking of teaching (or simply going to school in your cases), how did it feel to be back?" Kat asked Tommy and his students.

"Honestly, it felt almost like back when _we_ were in high school and after having gotten up at 9:30 for a while I had to get used to getting back up at 6:00 in the morning again." Tommy replied.

"That makes a few of us." Kira said. "Well, except maybe for Ethan here."

Ethan shrugged. "Hey, some of us are just able to get up (no matter how much sleep you get) with no problem and others just can't. But in my case, I've no problem with it, and if anything it's probably a good thing considering what I'm going into. I mean, in the game industry, if you've got a game to finish and it's coming down to crunch time, you better be ready to get almost little to no sleep."

"But you wouldn't mind being under that kind of pressure?" Kat asked.

"Are you kidding me? I'm itching for the day when that actually _does_ happen." Ethan answered. "Now granted, I'm not too keen on being under pressure while working on school projects, but working on a game…yo, that's just icing on the cake."

"Knowing you, no doubt." Kira said.

"Where's Conner?" Tommy asked.

"He had to stay behind at school and talk to his coach about some stuff." Trent replied. "He said he'll be here later."

"So Kira, do you still want to go and show Tanya your demos?" Kat asked.

"Definitely." Kira replied. "I actually called her just the other day and asked her if I could bring my demos over on Friday, and she said it was fine with her."

"That's good." Kat said.

"What's that?" Tommy asked as he noticed the book on Kat's lap.

"Oh, that's my scrapbook."

"Wait, is that the some one that you had-?"

"-years ago, yes." Kat replied as she got up and walked over to the table where Tommy's students were and opened up her scrapbook for them to see. "Of course, I've added more than a couple of things to it since High School, but…"

"Wow," Kira said as she and the others looked through the pages as Kat turned them. The first couple of pages Tommy recognized right away for he remembered Katherine showing him those exact same pages back in their senior year. Then she finally came to the pages that had photos of her swimming and jumping off a diving board.

"You were a diver?" Trent asked.

"Yeah, I was." Kat said as she smiled nostalgically. "According to my coach at the time, I was pretty much the best diver she had ever seen. In fact, at one point I had actually gone so far as to compete in the Pan-Global games for that specific event."

"Get out of town." Ethan said.

"Really, I did. Here, take a look." Kat said as she turned a page, showing actual newspaper clippings of her diving.

"So, what happened? Were you able to win?" Kira asked.

"Sadly, no." Kat replied with a sad smile. "During the last dive of the competition…I don't know what happened (and even to this day, I still don't completely know), but somehow I lost concentration and ended up hitting my head on the board."

"Ouch." Ethan said.

"And then when I came to, I was in the hospital and my coach had told me that I had lost the meet only by one point."

"That's even worse." Kira said.

"Was this before you had moved to Angel Grove?" Trent asked.

"Yeah." Kat replied. "For a while after that, I was just petrified to go near the water or if someone so much as said 'the pool' I would just shudder. But then after I moved to America and met Tommy and the other Rangers," she then turned and smiled briefly at Tommy, who gently massaged her left shoulder a bit. "-that was when I was finally able to overcome that fear and be able to go back near the water again."

_Whoa._ The teens thought.

"Hi guys!"

Tommy, Kat, and the four teens looked up and saw Conner headed in their direction.

"What's up?" Ethan asked.

"Oh…nothing much." Conner said. _Well, except for a certain redhead, but…_

"Wait, I thought you had to talk to your coach about practice and stuff?" Kira asked.

"I did. But it didn't take as long as I thought it would, so…here I am." Conner said as he pulled up an empty chair and sat alongside the others. "So, did I miss anything?"

"No, just hanging around." Trent answered.

"What's that?" Conner asked as he noticed Kat's scrapbook on the table.

"It's my scrapbook." Kat replied.

"Oh, cool." Conner said.

Since everyone else was sitting around the table Kat and Tommy took seats around the table as well so everybody could see it.

When it got to where there were Tommy/Kat pictures and other little tidbits regarding them it took every ounce of will power for Conner not to just say any jokes about it, but he couldn't help but say, "Well, well, well, what have we got here?" once he saw the pages. Kira, and Trent gave him a look, but even Ethan couldn't help but raise an eyebrow and grin widely at the pictures himself. Tommy just sighed as he looked at the photos, their images bringing back a great deal of memories.

"This is really good stuff in here, Kat. Really good stuff." Kira said once they were all finished looking through it.

"Thanks Kira." Kat said.

"So you just put more stuff in it as time goes by?" Trent asked.

"Yeah." Kat replied as she put her scrapbook back in her backpack. "When I first got started on it I didn't really have any specific theme in mind, I just liked to put some memorabilia and other tidbits in it, not much else. But then as time went by and as I started to put more things in it, it became sort of like a…timeline of sorts."

"Guys?"

"Yeah Hayley?" Tommy asked as he, Kat, and the others turned to face Hayley.

"I really hate to interrupt, but I think maybe you guys should come to the backroom quickly."

"What's going on?" Trent asked.

"Just…come on, follow me."

Not knowing what Hayley was talking about Conner, Ethan, Kira, and Trent got up and followed her to the backroom. Tommy and Kat got up and followed as well, wondering what was going on.

"All right Hayley, we're here, so what is it?" Tommy asked once everyone was inside the backroom of the cyber café.

Hayley then walked up to a section of the wall and opened up a small part of it, revealing a panel with a telephone-like keypad. She then punched in a four-digit code, causing another section of the wall right by her to open up, revealing a small computer console with a keyboard and mouse, which automatically rolled out a few inches once the wall opened up completely. When Tommy had finished setting up the Dino Ruins underneath his house (with help from Hayley, of course), Hayley had gone ahead and installed a system in the backroom of the café that would be linked to the Ruins' mainframe. This was done so if Mesogog was to launch one of his usual attacks on the city and Tommy and his students weren't in the Dino Ruins, the system would pick it up and signal Hayley on her watch, which Hayley herself had modified to emit its usual watch alarm if the system was to do so. In addition, Hayley had also programmed it to pick up any energy signatures that weren't dark energy necessarily, but still different than the norm.

"This." Hayley said as she gestured to the monitor, which had the words "Energy signature detected." on the screen. "I had turned on the system (as usual) when I opened up this morning and everything was fine, nothing out of the ordinary, but then just a few minutes ago, the tracking system picked up some kind of energy reading."

"Do you know what it is?" Kat asked.

"I'm not _completely_ sure, but if I didn't misread what I saw a couple of minutes ago, I think I might know what it is."

After a few seconds of typing, Hayley and the others saw an image of what looked like a back road appear on the screen.

"I don't see anything weird." Conner said.

Hayley then made the image zoom in some more.

"Take another look." She said.

The group looked closer and saw an asteroid lying in a field not too far from where the road was.

"Okay, what the hell is that?" Conner asked.

"Hello? Earth to Conner!" Ethan said. "It's an asteroid."

"How do you know that?"

"Well, with a rock that big, and considering that it looks as though there might be a crater underneath it…I don't know, but if that doesn't spell out 'asteroid' in my head I don't know what does." Ethan replied sarcastically.

"So is _that_ what's been giving out the energy reading?" Tommy asked.

"More than likely. And I wouldn't say it's the rock itself, but more like something _in_ it." Hayley said as she continued to type some more. All of a sudden another image of what looked like an energy stream appeared on the bottom left corner of the screen.

"This energy stream you're seeing is more or less an actual energy output that comes from your dino gems." Hayley explained. "Now watch what happens when I do exactly the same thing to the energy that's coming from that asteroid."

After a few moments another image appeared on the bottom right side of the screen, with the image looking similar to the one on the left.

"It looks alike." Kira remarked.

"Not only alike, but…" Hayley said as she typed in some more code. Then the two images of the energy streams increased in size to cover the whole screen with an equal sign flashing between the two images.

"They match." Kat said, already realizing as to what Hayley might be getting at.

"Exactly." Hayley said. "And not just by the way they look, but also in terms of their energy output."

"Okay, I still don't get it." Conner said.

Ethan sighed. "Conner, what Hayley's trying to say is that unless the tracking system's screwed up, we may have found ourselves another dino gem, and it may happen to be inside that asteroid."

"Oh." Conner said.

"The only problem I'm having right now is that I can't seem to get a full lock on where the gem might be." Hayley said. "All I'm getting is just spare traces of it."

"Maybe, but if the traces are coming from there, then it's got to be somewhere near that area." Trent suggested.

"Only one way to find out." Conner said as he rubbed his hands together.

BEEP-BEEP-BEEP! BEEP-BEEP-BEEP!

At the sound of the alarm the group then saw another image appear on the screen with Elsa, the White Ranger clone, and several Tyrannodrones showing up near the rock.

"And here I was wondering when _they _were going to show up." Tommy mused.

"No doubt Mesogog found out about the asteroid too." Ethan said.

"If the gem's there, we gotta get it before they do." Trent implored.

"No doubt about that." Conner agreed.

"All right then, you guys morph and get over there fast, if the gem is in fact there, find it and stop Elsa and the others from getting it." Tommy said to his protégés.

"You got it, doc." Conner said.

"Well, as much I'd like to help keep an eye on things, I can't be back here and in front of the café at the same time." Hayley said.

"Well, if it would help, Tommy and I can stay back here and keep in contact with them while you do what you need to do." Kat offered which made Tommy grin and nod in agreement.

Hayley nodded in agreement as well. "Yeah, okay. That'll work."

"Let's do it guys." Conner said as he and his friends stepped away from the computer. "Ready."

"Ready." Replied Ethan, Kira, and Trent as their bracelets transformed into their morphers.

"Dino-Thunder, power up, hah!"

"White Ranger, dino power!"

--

"Anything yet?" Elsa asked.

"No." Replied the White Ranger clone as he continued to point a large scanning device at the asteroid, which he had been scanning for the past few minutes now. "Aside from the usual energy traces we had seen back at the fortress, nothing else."

"Well, hopefully we'll be able to locate the gem itself once we bring this rock back." Elsa said. _Besides, the last thing we need right now is for the Ranger number to go from five to six._ "All right you buffoons, get this rock out of here, and be quick about it." Elsa said to the group of Tyrannodrones that were inspecting the rock. As soon as she gave the order the drones quickly got to work and gathered around the asteroid so they could carry it, but no sooner did they lift it off the ground did a laser blast hit where they were, knocking a few drones to the ground and causing others to lose their grip on the rock, dropping it.

Elsa and the clone turned and saw the three Raptor cycles and the White ATV heading straight in their direction.

As soon as they were close enough, Conner, Ethan, Kira, and Trent dismounted their vehicles.

"Going somewhere with that?" Conner asked.

"As a matter of fact, I was." Elsa replied coolly. "To be honest I was actually wondering if you were going to show up at all."

"Well, what can we say, we don't disappoint." Ethan quipped.

"A pity I can't say the same thing." Elsa said. "Because if the four of you are here for the same reason I am, you may as well just go back, because this asteroid is coming with us."

"Says who?" Trent asked.

"Says me." Elsa replied. "Besides, I believe it's 'Finders keepers, losers weepers', or so the saying goes."

"We'll see who's going to be the one doing the weeping." Conner said as he and the others took their fighting stances.

Elsa smirked. "Indeed." She said as she then drew her sword and raised in the air before pointing it at the rangers. "Attack!"

What followed was basically a usual tussle between Elsa, the Tyrannodrones, the Ranger clone, and the Rangers. And as was the case, some of the Tyrannodrones were getting schooled. However, though most of the drones were fighting the Rangers, some had snuck around the fighting and tried to lift the rock to take it back to Mesogog.

Trent had just felled a drone when he saw the group of drones trying to take the asteroid.

_Oh, no you don't._

Gripping his Drago sword in his right hand, Trent did his dash attack on the drones. Since the drones were holding the rock, they really couldn't put up any kind of defense, let alone a weak one. So no sooner did Trent slash through them did they lose their grip on the rock, dropping it on the ground once again.

"Y' know, if you want to try and bring that rock back to Mesogog you might not want to try doing it in pieces." Trent said as he looked at the downed drones, some of which looked dismembered. Just as he turned his head he then saw a long sword come at him in a lightsaber-esque way. Thinking fast Trent quickly parried with his Drago sword, blocking the sword as it came at him, deflecting it back to Elsa, who caught it with a look of disgust. She then twirled her sword a bit before pointing it back towards Trent, firing an energy stream at him to which he quickly back flipped out of the way.

Meanwhile, the White Ranger clone fired some energy arrows at the Rangers as well as firing his own laser from his Drago sword. The blast connected, sending Conner, Ethan, and the others reeling into the ground.

"Guys!" Trent called out as he saw his friends get knocked down. Before he could move to help, Elsa caught him by surprise and slashed him across his shoulder, causing him to stagger and slump across the rock.

"If there's at least one thing I'll give you credit for Trent, it's that at least you put up a good fight." Elsa said with a sneer. "But, as is the case, all things have to come to an end."

Shaking the dizziness out of his eyes, Trent staggered a bit against the rock as he tried to get back up on his feet, but the blow had done a number on him and he ended up slumping against the rock a little bit.

Since he knew that Elsa was standing behind him Trent turned around (albeit rather clumsily) to face her, still keeping a grip on his Drago sword as he supported himself on the asteroid.

_Wait a minute…_ he thought as he felt his right hand grip part of the rock, which almost instantly gave him an idea.

"So, any last words?" Elsa asked as she twirled her sword around in a playful, almost casual way.

"Would you really want to hear them?" Trent asked.

"Humor me."

"I wouldn't get any closer if I were you."

"Oh, and why's that?" Elsa asked.

"Because since I'm literally in front of the rock, and since you're standing in front of me, if I move, you'll end up hitting the rock instead of me, and there'll be nothing left of this rock but dust (maybe a few shards, if we're lucky), along with the gem."

Elsa chuckled. "And you think me slicing off a piece of this asteroid matters to me?"

"Well, it may not matter to you, but I think to Mesogog, that probably might be a different story." Trent said.

"Well, I hate to burst your bubble White Ranger, but the gem's not in there."

"What are you talking about?"

"As much as I hate being honest, I'll tell you one little truth (and it's probably the only truth you'll ever hear from me) and it's that the gem isn't in that rock. It was in there, but somehow it disappeared long before me or my cohorts ever got here."

"But you know, even despite that, the rock could still be of use…that is, once I take care of you." Elsa said as she brought her sword up and did a vertical slash at Trent, which he blocked with a parry. Trent then followed it up with a front kick that knocked Elsa a few feet back. Getting back up on his feet (in spite of the soreness in his shoulder) Trent pointed the handle of his Drago sword and fired, making Elsa reel and shriek in pain and frustration.

--

Meanwhile, Mesogog was watching the whole thing from his main lab, and just shook his head in pure disgust. Not only was Elsa wasting her time fighting the Rangers, but she had pretty much allowed the entire group of Tyrannodrones he had sent with her to get dismantled, including the ones that hadn't been fighting them.

Frustrated, but not surprised by Elsa's blunder, Mesogog then got up from his chair and approached the mainframe's console. Once he was in front of it he then began typing in codes.

_As usual, I have to end up doing everything myself._

After he was finished typing, the door to the hallway opened and the Triptoids appeared.

"So all of you are here, good." Mesogog said as he adjusted the viewscreen so the Triptoids could see it.

"Now I've summoned you here because as you can see, Elsa and our dark Ranger duplicate are pretty much occupied with the Rangers, and unfortunately the team of Tyrannodrones that I had sent with them have pretty much been dispatched. So I want you to go down there and retrieve the asteroid, but do not engage the Rangers in battle. Once you've retrieved the rock, I'll open an invisiportal to transport you back. Understood?" Though he knew that all his cohorts had to do was mentally "open" an invisiportal and one would appear and transport them back to his fortress, Mesogog did not want to take any chances that the Rangers might try to stop the Triptoids from taking the rock, so he was planning on "programming" an invisiportal that would open once the triptoids had the asteroid and transport them back here. However, because of the nature of the invisiportals themselves, it was extremely complex even for him. It was one thing to sacrifice Tyrannodrones and Triptoids, that Mesogog had no qualms about; but losing this asteroid as well as his chances of getting the sixth gem…that was another story.

The Triptoids nodded obediently.

"Good, now go."

--

"Just out of curiosity, did Mesogog pump you full of steroids or something this morning?" Conner asked the clone.

"No. Just extensive training." The clone replied. "Besides, lord Mesogog's brainwave scrambler can be more than a good enough motivation."

"Too bad that's not going to be the worse thing that happens to you!" Trent said as he did his dash-attack on the clone.

"Dude, what kept you?" Conner asked.

"Elsa wanted to have a heart-to-heart, for some reason." Trent replied. _Or should I say sword-to-shoulder?_ He thought as he unconsciously rubbed his shoulder. "I don't know why though."

"Feeling a bit fatigued, White Ranger?" Elsa asked tauntingly as she joined the Ranger clone.

Before Trent could answer, an invisiportal opened right on top of the asteroid and out appeared Triptoids which caught the Rangers and even Elsa and the White Ranger clone by surprise.

"What the-?" Kira began.

Since they were standing around the rock the Triptoids wasted no time in grabbing the sides of the rock and then disappearing through the exact same invisiportal.

"No!" Ethan protested.

"You might want to start saying your prayers, Rangers." Elsa sneered, covering up her surprise that Mesogog had sent Triptoids to help without even telling her. "Because once we get that gem, the twilight of your lives (and everyone else's on this damn planet) will begin."

And with that Elsa and the clone disappeared through an invisiportal of their own.

"Wait!" Conner called out as the duo disappeared. "Damn it!"

"I can't freakin' believe it." Ethan mused. "They got the gem."

"Somehow I don't think they did." Trent said as he rubbed his shoulder.

"Trent, are you okay?" Kira asked concernedly.

"Yeah, I'll be fine."

"What do you mean by you don't think they did?" Ethan asked. "You saw them take the rock."

"They _did_ get the rock, but like Trent, somehow I wouldn't be too sure that they got the gem itself." Tommy said into their morphers.

"How do you figure, Dr. O?" Conner asked.

"I'm not completely sure, but if we can all meet back to the dino ruins at my place, I think we might be able to figure this out a little more." Tommy said.

"One can only hope, doc." Ethan said.

"All right. Come on, guys. Let's head back." Conner said as he and his friends got on their vehicles and headed for their mentor's lab.


	4. Where in the world is the gem?

AN: Hey Paisanos! Sorry I haven't updated in a while, but class, along with writer's block (and going on a little bit of an anti-SEGA warpath because they still won't listen to the Sonic fans and re-hire the original VAs and kick out the ones from 4KIDS) I've been out of it for a while. I mean, seriously, is it writer's block season or something, or is it just me?

But anyway, here's my new chap for you guys.

--

Chapter 3-Where in the world is the gem?

Mesogog snarled to himself as he saw the Tyrannodrones and the Triptoids at work, holding scanners and such as they inspected the rock as closely as they could. As they passed the scanners on the rock, Mesogog monitored the information coming from the scanners on his mainframe.

_Excellent._ He thought.

"Master," Elsa said. "Not that I didn't appreciate you sending the Triptoids to assist, but myself and the White Ranger clone had been all set to bring you the rock."

"Really?" Mesogog asked rhetorically. "Because from what I had seen, I could have sworn that exactly the opposite was happening."

"Mesogog, all I-"

"_All_ you did was just take one simple task and turn it into something that was completely out of proportion." Mesogog corrected. "And in typical fashion, I had to be the one to step in and clean up your mess, which isn't exactly a personal hobby of mine."

Elsa wanted to say more, but Mesogog completely cut her off. "And if you want to protest some more Elsa, do me a favor and _don't_, because right now getting excuses are at the very bottom of my to-do list. So instead of trying to justify that fiasco that happened out in that field a few minutes ago, maybe you should help."

Elsa fumed inwardly to herself but she knew there was no use arguing with him. So she walked over to the mainframe and took a look at the readouts that were being fed back from the scanners the drones were holding, all the while thinking about how she should castrate the Rangers the next time she ran into them.

--

"Anything?"

"No," Tommy answered Kat as he looked at the mainframe's screen in the Dino Ruins, which had a full shot of the field of where his students had been fighting Elsa and co. a few minutes ago. "I've done practically five scans straight on that entire area, and nothing but the usual traces Hayley picked up at the café."

"So according to Elsa, the gem wasn't even inside the rock when she and the others got there?" Ethan asked Trent.

"Yeah. More or less." Trent replied.

"Sounds more like a ruse to me, dude." Conner said.

"Maybe, but in this case I wouldn't be too sure about that." Tommy said.

"How so?" Conner asked.

Tommy then gestured for his students to come over to where he and Kat were as he pulled up an image of the field where the asteroid had been a few minutes ago on the mainframe's main screen.

"This is the image Hayley had gotten while we were at the café."

"Nice shot." Ethan mused.

"Well, I don't see anything out of the ordinary (or at least not anything we haven't already seen)." Kira said.

"Maybe not, but take a look at the screen again _after_ I zoom in on the shot." Tommy said as he typed in some keys to make the image larger.

"I still don't see any-wait a minute, what's that?" Trent asked as he looked at something on the image.

"What's what?" Conner asked.

"That right there." Trent said as he pointed to something on the ground.

"It looks like…footprints." Kat said as she took a closer look.

"They are." Tommy said. "And they're _not_ of the Tyrannodrone or Triptoid kind either."

"So Elsa wasn't bluffing." Trent mused.

"Nope." Tommy said.

"But if the gem wasn't there, why would Mesogog want to take the rock then?" Conner asked.

"Probably to do exactly what we're trying to do: find out where the gem might be." Tommy answered. "That, plus the fact that knowing Mesogog, he wouldn't hesitate to use whatever resources are in the rock to benefit his own plans."

_Great. _Thought the teens to themselves as a silence filled the room.

"So, what do we know so far?" Kira asked, trying to break the silence.

"Well, we know that an asteroid (with a dino gem inside it) crashed into a field, and from what we can tell from this picture, someone passing by had seen the rock hit, gone over to check it out, and found the gem while doing so. Only that by the time any of _us_ knew that there was another gem out there and where it was, the person was gone, along with the gem." Kat said.

Tommy and the others just looked at her with amazed, wide-eyed looks on their faces.

"What?" Kat asked.

"Oh…nothing." Tommy said as he smiled warmly at his girlfriend. Though he wasn't surprised that she was able to put it all together so quickly, he couldn't help but be amazed nonetheless.

"Well, going back to someone having that gem…is it possible it could have bonded to that person's DNA?" Ethan asked.

"It depends." Tommy replied. "Now I've researched the red, blue, and yellow gems for years, and from what I've been able to understand, the gems are _not_ going to bond to just anyone."

"That's the part I don't understand." Kat said. "Just _how_ is it that the gems will bond to only one person's DNA and not anyone else's?"

Tommy sighed. "Even that I don't completely know. But I do know that there seems to be some kind of…I wouldn't call it AI, but…somehow it just 'knows' if the person that's touching it is the one that's meant to use its powers. And if that still sounds confusing to anyone, I'll put it in a simple sentence: _You_ don't choose the gem, _it_ chooses you."

"Well, with that being said, could the fact that somebody else has the gem be a good thing or a bad thing?" Conner asked sincerely.

Tommy looked at his student before looking at everyone else in the lab. Then when he looked at Kat he could see that her eyes pretty much echoed Conner's question, as did everyone else's.

"Honestly?" Tommy asked rhetorically before answering. "It depends on who's the one that's got the gem."

"So what do we do now?" Trent asked.

"Right now I have the system set so it's taking the energy traces and as Hayley would say, 'compiling' them together as much as possible so hopefully sometime tomorrow we'll be able to get a little more info on this gem."

"It's going to take that long?" Kira asked.

"Yeah, unfortunately." Tommy replied. "Since we only have traces of the gem and not the actual gem itself, it's going to take some time before we know anymore than what we do right now. But until then…all we can do right now is just wait."


	5. Digging, digging, and still digging

AN: Countdown to next-gen impact: 1 month, 7 days and counting. Now I don't know about you guys, but me personally, I'm getting the Wii. It's cheaper and it's FUN (Hey, with the Virtual Console, you can't go wrong.), which is something Sony and Microsoft still don't completely understand. (Personally, I hope Sony gets dethroned and bows out of the industry for good, but that's probably just the Nintendo kid in me.)

Que se viva la revolution!

--

Chapter 4-Digging, digging, and…still digging

The next day was pretty much another typical Thursday at Reefside High, with students and teachers pretty much doing the same old things as they usually would, and Tommy and his students were no exception. Even though they were anxious to find out where the gem was and who had it, they knew they weren't going to find it any quicker by dwelling on it, so to get their minds off it they spent the rest of the school day doing their usual thing.

When the bell rang for lunch Conner left his math class and headed for his locker to put some of his textbooks in before he met up with the others. He ended up bumping into Krista while he was on his way there, and since Krista had to go to her own locker Conner decided he'd walk with her to her locker first before heading to his own, and so they did, all the while trying to make some conversation.

"So how's the dance thing coming along?" Conner asked.

"Oh, it's coming." Krista replied. "I still have a couple of techniques to work on, but I'm getting there."

"Well, if what I saw that night at the Nutcracker show was anything, I don't think you should have anything to worry about." Conner said. "You're really good."

Krista blushed slightly and smiled. "Thanks, Conner."

Once they got to Krista's locker she then slung her backpack over her left shoulder and opened the large pocket to take out her U.S. history textbook.

"Need a hand?" Conner offered.

"It's okay, it's not _that_ heavy." Krista replied as she put her textbook in and closed her locker door. She then zipped up the large pocket of her backpack and unzipped one of the small ones to reach for her I-pod. But as she tried to reach for it inside, she not only grabbed her I-pod, but a few other things as well, and as a result everything (minus her I-pod) that was in the pocket fell out.

"Oh, great." Krista sighed as she kneeled down to pick up her High School agenda book, eraser, and some other things that had fallen out, but Conner was already kneeling down and picking them up.

"Thanks." Krista said as Conner handed her stuff back to her.

"Hey, no big." Conner replied.

"It's just-I don't know, is it klutz day or something?"

"I don't know." Conner said. "I guess sometimes it can just be one of those days-"

Before he could finish, Conner stopped himself in mid-sentence as his eyes came to rest on a strange-looking object he had just picked up and was holding in his hand. No sooner did he take his first glance at it did he quickly feel as if though he had just swallowed a lung, for he quickly knew exactly what it was he was holding.

_No way…_ Conner thought as he looked at it.

"Where…?"

"Oh, um…where it's…just…one of those days." Conner stammered as he tried to remain nonchalant and not let Krista see him with a bewildered look on his face as he handed the rock back to her. However, Krista had noticed it.

"Are you okay?" She asked, still holding the gem.

"Yeah, it's just that…I just remembered something…else." Conner replied.

"Oh."

"So…what is that, anyway?" Conner asked as he gestured to the gemstone that was still in Krista's hand.

"I don't know." Krista answered. "I was driving down one of the back roads the other day on my way home, and then all of a sudden I hear this noise coming from the sky and when I looked up, lo and behold, there's this big asteroid streaking across the sky heading someplace near me, and then in no time the rock hits an open field not too far where I am."

"Whoa," Conner whistled.

"I know," Krista agreed. "So…out of curiosity I went over to where it was, and from what I saw it looked pretty much like your everyday rock (albeit an asteroid) but then when I got closer I saw _this_ embedded in it."

"Weird-looking gemstone."

"I know. But hey, it's definitely not something you would see everyday, right?"

"No, not at all." Conner replied as he tried to think of how to ask his next question without having Krista ask _him_ a couple of questions that he couldn't answer without having to reveal…

"So…what…happened?" He asked as they walked out of the building.

"Well, when the asteroid crashed, at that moment part of me just wanted to go and drive off, but on the other hand another part of me felt, _why not go check it out?_ So I drove off the highway and onto the field. Surprisingly the rock itself wasn't as hot as I thought (the crater itself was another story though) so I was able to get close to it and _that's_ when I discovered the gem."

Conner didn't say anything, but when Krista saw him nod to her she knew he was listening, which for some reason, she found that to be a little strange.

"And…that's it?" Conner asked as casual as he could, though inside his mind was just racing; this was more information than what he, his friends, and their teacher already knew, and it was almost too much for him.

"Yeah, pretty much." Krista replied. "Although, here's something weird though: When I picked up the gem…somehow, it tried to…light up, almost."

This got Conner's attention completely. "Wait, you mean like…it glowed?" He asked, already knowing inwardly as to what that might mean.

"I wouldn't say that it glowed, but it was like…a flicker, almost." Krista replied. "It was like it lit up for a second, and then it faded out just as fast. It's kind of like when you flick the switch to a light bulb on/off quickly to see if the light works, you know?"

"Yeah, I think I have an idea." Conner replied. _So it only lit up for not even a second? That doesn't make any sense._

"I had thought about taking it to Dr. Oliver, but…then I thought, _nah_."

"Why not?" Conner asked, his tone a little less nonchalant than how he wanted to be. "I mean, if anything Dr. O could tell you if it was anything cool or not." He said when he saw Krista look at him surprisingly for his semi-outburst.

"Yeah, but other than what I saw, there wasn't anything else interesting about the gemstone, and it didn't light up again or anything like that, so, I figured…"

"Mmm." Conner nodded.

"But, at least it makes a good keepsake though." Krista said as she put the gem in her pocket.

"That's for sure." Conner said as he saw his friends step out of another building not too far away. Conner then gestured to them, hoping they could see them (which they did) and the trio headed in Conner and Krista's direction.

"What's up?" Trent asked.

"Oh, not much. Just…hangin'." Conner replied.

"Obviously." Kira said.

"Y' know, we were actually waiting for you to show up so we could get a bite and still have time to get back here." Ethan said.

"I was…busy." Conner said.

_Yeah, busy kissing up to Krista, I'm sure._ Ethan thought wryly.

"Do you want to come along?" Conner asked Krista.

"I…don't know."

Conner sighed. "Look, if it makes you feel any better, I promise I'll get you back here in time."

Krista thought about it for a few seconds, then she sighed and smiled slightly. "All right, but if we get back here late…"

"Krista, you can trust me." Conner said sincerely.

"Okay."

"All right, let's go." Conner said.

So the group then made their way to Conner's Mustang to head for lunch. However, as they walked, a whole jumble of questions began to spin about in Conner's mind.

--

After they got back from lunch, everybody pretty much went through their 3rd period class as usual, ticking off the minutes and hoping that the clock would go faster so they could go home (Or in the case of Tommy's four protégés, the Dino Ruins.)

Ethan and the others had noticed that Conner had a little bit of a tense, bewildered look on his face during lunch and asked him what was up. Since Krista was around Conner couldn't say much, but he did say that once they got to Dr. Oliver's place he'd tell them.

As soon as school let out, the group went to their teacher's room to meet up with him but Tommy told them to go on ahead since he had to go to Hayley's to pick up Kat (Since Cosmos was closed for the week Kat had decided to keep busy for the week by offering to help out at the cyber café. Hayley needed some help, so she gratefully accepted.) and that he would meet them there, so the four teens went on ahead and headed for their teacher's house. About fifteen minutes after Conner, Ethan, Kira, and Trent got there Tommy and Kat showed up.

"So have you found anything new yet, doc?" Ethan asked as they headed down the stairs to the Dino Ruins.

"No, not yet." Tommy replied. "Although…hopefully since I had the mainframe on pretty much the whole night and all day today compiling the data I put in regarding that gem…that might be different."

"One can only hope." Kat said.

Once they got downstairs Tommy quickly wasted no time as he sat down in front of the main screen, which had the Dino-thunder screen saver on.

"So, what was it you couldn't tell us over at Taco-Bell (since Krista was with us)?" Kira asked Conner as they waited for their teacher to boot the system up from its sleep mode.

Conner sighed. "Where exactly do you want me to start?"

"Holy smoke…" Tommy began.

Upon hearing their teacher speak, the four teens then turned and got closer to the mainframe where Tommy and Kat were.

"What is it Dr. O?" Trent asked.

"I think we've got something." Tommy replied.

"What?" Kat asked.

"I'm not sure yet, but I think we're about to find out."

He then punched in some more keys, and then a CG image of the gem appeared on the left side of the screen with a large textbox on the right side.

"So what's it say?" Kira asked.

"Well, for starters…if I'm reading this right, the computer knows the dinosaur the gem's power is based on." Tommy replied.

"Which dino would that be?" Ethan asked.

"The Ichthyosaur."

"Ichtheya-what?" Conner said.

"Ichthyosaur." Kat, Tommy, Trent, and Ethan said in unison.

"What's that?" Conner asked.

"It's a dinosaur that lived in the ocean during the Jurassic Period." Tommy explained. "Quite fast and very agile. Based on the skeletons that were found, they bore a startling resemblance to dolphins."

"So in essence it was sort of like a prehistoric dolphin." Kat said.

"Yep." Tommy supplied.

"Wait, I'm a little confused." Ethan said. "The asteroid with mine, Conner's and Kira's gem had hit right around the end of the Cretaceous period, right?"

"Right." Tommy answered.

"Well, weren't _those_ dinos supposed to have already been extinct before 'The rock' hit?" Ethan asked as he remembered Dr. Oliver giving a lecture on the Cretaceous period.

"Well, supposedly, they were." Tommy replied.

_Dang._ Ethan thought.

"Is there anything else the system dug up?" Kira asked. "Any dino gem capabilities or…?"

"Let me see…" Tommy said as he took a look at the textboxes with the information on the gem. "No, nothing on that. Although…wait a second…"

"What is it?" Kat asked.

"I don't know." Tommy replied. "But I'm reading something strange on the gem's color signature."

"What?" Kira asked.

"I can't say for sure, but if I'm reading this right…it's almost as if there's something…I don't know, I guess you could call it-off about the gem's color signature."

"What, you mean like it may not have an actual color?" Ethan asked.

"I'm not going to say that that _is_ the case, but from what I can tell…yeah." Tommy said with a sigh as he looked at the screen again.

"We need to find that gem, and pronto." Trent said.

"We probably may already have."

Though Conner mumbled it to himself, everybody heard him.

"What did you say?" Ethan asked.

"Oh, uh…nothing."

"Bro, we heard you pretty clearly." Ethan pointed out. "What was it?"

_Oh, boy._ Conner thought to himself. But as he noticed everyone, including his teacher and Kat wondering what he had said he quickly shrugged it off and swallowed his pride.

"What if I were to tell you guys that I think I know who has the gem?"

"You know who has it?" Kira asked.

Conner nodded.

"Who is it?" Tommy asked.

As soon as he heard his teacher ask the question Conner quickly tried to think of ways to break it to them, since he really wasn't sure how they might react, especially Kat, since she was Krista's teacher over at the dance school. Seeing as how there wasn't really any other easy way to say it, he went out and said it.

"It's Krista." Conner answered. "She's the one that has the gem."

An eerie silence reverberated around the lab for a few seconds that to Conner, seemed to stretch into hours. Finally Kat spoke.

"Are you sure?"

"I'm sure." Conner replied.

"Not to sound skeptical or anything, but how do you know she has it?" Ethan asked. "And just as important, when did you know?"

"It was during lunch period just before I met up with you guys that I ran into her." Conner explained. "I walked her to her locker, and while she was taking some books out of her backpack, some stuff fell out. I went to help pick them up for her when…I saw the gem itself."

"Are you sure that it was the gem and not something else?" Kira asked.

Conner sighed. "Look, I know I don't exactly have the best attention span out of all of us here (except in soccer) but I know what I saw, and what I saw looked too much like our own gems to be anything else." He said as he indicated his own gem on his bracelet.

"So what did you do?" Trent asked.

Conner then told his friends what Krista had told him when he had asked her about the gemstone.

"It's funny, since she had thought of bringing it to you, Dr. O." Conner continued. "But she decided not to."

"Were you able to tell by any chance if the gem had bonded to her or…?" Tommy asked.

"From what I could tell, I don't really think so, but…I don't really know for sure." Conner replied. "She told me that when she had picked it up, it lit up for a second, but then it flickered out just as quickly."

"So from what she told you, it didn't glow for a while like ours did?" Trent asked.

"No." Conner answered.

"Weird." Ethan remarked. "Doc, do you know how these gems operate when they bond (or not bond) to a person's DNA?"

"Not completely." Dr. Oliver replied. "But I know that when my gem bonded to me (granted, it wasn't in my hand, and I was pretty much immobile at the time) it glowed for more than just a couple of seconds before it flickered out; and of course with _your_ gems, once you touched them, they glowed for a while themselves, so my guess is that if the gems stay glowing for a while, then it means that they _have_ bonded to your DNA but good. But, that's only me speculating."

"Well, considering our track record with the gems _we_ have," Ethan said. "I'd say that speculation probably might be fact, Dr. O."

"Probably." Tommy agreed. "But does this make it less complicated or more complicated for us?"

"Maybe a little bit of both." Kira said.

"Well, at the very least it's safe for now." Kat reasoned.

_Maybe, but for how long?_ Tommy thought. _And just how long is it going to take before Mesogog knows what we know?_

No sooner did Tommy think that did he look at Kat and everybody else around him, and as he looked at everyone's eyes, including his girlfriend's, he could tell that they were pretty much thinking more or less the same thing.

--

"What is it, Elsa?" Mesogog asked as he stepped into the laboratory.

"Master," Elsa began. "I think you may want to take a look at this."

"What is it?"

"Well…let's just say that I think we may have a lock on the actual gem itself." Elsa replied. "But don't take my word for it. See for yourself."

Mesogog then took a look at the information on the monitor very closely. Then after a while, he then raised his head and grinned evilly at Elsa.

"Excellent, Elsa." He snarled as he stepped away from the monitor, revealing an image of Krista with the words, "GEM ENERGY SIGNATURE FOUND" in the middle of the screen. "Excellent."


	6. Drone calamities

AN: Thanks to everyone for the reviews! I'm sorry I've been gone for a while, but between midterms and my sister using the computer for her own assignments for school, and writer's block, well…you get the idea.

--

Chapter 5-Drone calamities

Krista exhaled softly to herself as she stepped out onto the porch of her house dressed in a leotard, carrying a boom box in one hand and a CD in another. Once she set the boom box down, plugged it in and put in the CD, she then warmed up to get ready to start her dance routine. Though she already had been honing her skills for more than a while, she still wanted to see if she could get ahead just a bit. That way when class started again next week she'd be more prepared than usual.

As Ce Ce Peniston's "Finally" began to play off the speakers, Krista started her routine, her moves flowing along with the music quite well and gaining more momentum as she continued.

--

A while later, Krista finished her practicing for the day and cooled herself off with some Gatorade. Despite the fact that it was still winter, the back porch of Krista's house had gotten pretty warm in the while that Krista spent practicing her dance skills, and since her parents had chosen to leave the heater on somewhat, Krista didn't want to step inside just yet, for the house felt too stuffy for her. So she decided to step outside and get some air while she caught her breath back.

Once she finished her Gatorade she then stepped inside for a moment and placed the plastic bottle on a small table in the porch before stepping back out. Since the neighborhood she lived in was near a large lake Krista would always step outside her house and just look out into it, not really thinking about anything necessarily, except for the lake or the sky and just the sheer natural beauty that they seemed to exude.

Suddenly in the blink of an eye an ivisiportal opened up and out appeared several Tyrannodrones, as well as Elsa in front of her.

_What the-?_

"Hello, hello." Elsa said in a nonchalant tone. "Sorry for dropping in like this, but I wasn't exactly in the mood to knock on the door."

"What do you freaks want?" Krista asked, her eyes darting from Tyrannodrone to Tyrannodrone nervously.

"Oh, nothing really." Elsa replied casually. "Just a certain rock that you happen to have."

"What are you talking about?"

The cyborg smirked. "Oh, I think you _know_ just what it is I'm talking about."

A puzzled look crossed Krista's face as she tried to make sense of what Elsa was talking about, then it dawned on her.

_The gemstone I found…_

"Figured it out now?" Elsa asked.

Krista just narrowed her eyes. "What could you possibly want with a mere gemstone?"

"Nothing you really need to worry about…yet." Elsa said as she stepped menacingly closer to the teen, the drones following suit. "But the fact of the matter is, you have it, and me and my master want that gemstone. But since you unknowingly made it easy for us to find it, I'll make you a deal: if you give me the gem, then me and my flunkies here will leave and forget we were ever here, and as a bonus, you'll never see us bother you ever again."

Krista inwardly sneered to herself. _Right, and Conner would ditch soccer indefinitely._

No sooner did she think that did a part of Krista's mind wonder just why she thought of _him_ at that exact moment.

"Well, I'm sorry to disappoint you, but no deal." Krista said a tone that, while it still had some nervous undertones, it also had a determined firmness to it.

Elsa's eyes narrowed sharply. "You know, I don't think I need to repeat myself that I'm actually being generous enough to make this whole thing easy for you."

"Personally, I could really care less if you are." Krista said unflinchingly. "And just so you know, I don't exactly have the stone with me right now. And even if I did, I wouldn't exactly give it to the likes of you."

Elsa fumed. "Fine then." She said as she drew her sword. "If that's the way you want it…so be it."

As soon as Elsa took another step two laser blasts struck the ground where she and the other drones were standing.

"What-?"

"Back off!"

Krista, Elsa, and the Tyrannodrones turned and looked up, seeing the Red, Blue, White, and Yellow Rangers appear.

"This is none of your business, Rangers." Elsa snapped. "So but out!"

"Sorry, Elsa, but no can do." Ethan quipped as he drew his Thunder-max saber. "We'd lose our hero license if we did that."

"Krista, are you okay?" Asked the Red Ranger as he turned his head a bit towards Krista.

"Yeah." Krista replied, a small smile already forming on her face as she stepped back so as to not be in the way.

_Thank God._ Conner thought to himself as he turned his attention back to Elsa. "I don't know what you're doing here specifically Elsa, but if you're going to go so low as to start terrorizing people to get our attention, then you're even more psychotic than I thought."

"Well, surprisingly enough, I wasn't trying to." Elsa said. "But it just so happens that that girl happens to have something I want."

"What's that? Personality?" Conner sneered.

"Oh, I'll tell you…just before I decapitate you." Elsa snapped as she and the Tyrannodrones charged towards the Rangers.

Conner, Trent, and Kira drew their weapons as well and fought back at the drones with everything they had.

Krista tried to stay back and keep a distance so the drones wouldn't take notice of her and she wouldn't be in the way. But from what she could tell, the drones and the cyborg Elsa _were_ too engrossed in fighting the Rangers to notice her.

Except for one drone, who snuck up on Krista and grabbed her from behind.

_Okay, now I'm really getting tired of these freaks grabbing me._ Krista thought as she tried to elbow the Tyrannodrone in its chest. The blow connected, causing it to lose its grip on her and allowing her to go free. Before the drone could try to grab her, it felt something tap it on its shoulder.

"Excuse me."

The drone then turned only to have Conner slash it across its shoulder and chest with his Thunder-max saber, knocking it down to the ground.

"It's never a dull moment with these freaks." The Red Ranger mused out loud.

"No, just annoying ones." Krista said.

Elsa, who was seeing all of this as she fought Ethan (while Trent, Kira and Conner were fighting the Tyrannodrones), was fuming. This wasn't going according to plan at all. Though she knew that it would only have been a matter of time before the Rangers knew where the gem was and who was the one who found it, she didn't think it would be so soon.

That's when she realized that she would either have to A) find a way to get to Krista and get the truth of where the gem was out of her without the Rangers trying to protect her or B) regroup and head back to the island fortress to rethink a new strategy, which she really didn't want to do, and since she had in a way promised Mesogog that she would get the gem, she didn't want to go back and face him empty-handed. But judging by the looks of things (the Tyrannodrones getting their butts kicked, and the Red Ranger being quite protective of the girl and daring any lone drone to try and attack her) the former choice didn't seem very likely.

Ethan then struck with his Thunder-max saber, which Elsa blocked with a quick parry.

"Y' know, you may as well just go crawling back to your boss while you still have the chance." Ethan said.

Elsa didn't reply, instead she knocked Ethan's sword arm away and kicked him in the chest, doing a somersault as she did so. Once she landed back on the ground she then pointed her sword at Ethan, firing a deadly energy stream at him point-blank.

Having only a second to spare (and probably not even that) Ethan mentally tried to call his Tricera-shield, hoping it would appear so he could deflect Elsa's attack. Surprisingly enough, it did. And just before the stream him too.

The stream hit the shield full on, creating a loud explosion once it hit, causing smoke to billow up around Elsa and the Blue Ranger, covering Ethan up completely.

A small smirk began to cross Elsa's face, confident that she had either taken out the Blue Ranger for good or incapacitated him for a long time to come. Much to the cyborg's dismay, once the smoke cleared, Ethan was still standing in front of her, breathing a little bit heavily, but still standing.

Elsa's smirk quickly disappeared.

"Nice one." Ethan said casually. "Now let me show you a little trick of my own."

As he said this, the horn on his Tricera-shield extended to full max, and a bluish-white glow began to emanate from its tip. Ethan quickly pointed his shield directly at the cyborg and in no time at all, he activated his shield's feature.

"Blizzard shot!"

Ethan's Tricera-shield then fired a rabid series of icicle-shaped spikes directly at the cyborg. Elsa just glared and readied herself to deflect the ice shards with her sword, in retrospect, if she had remembered what had happened when Felectro had tried to block those exact same shards, she would have thought twice.

As she struck the shards with her sword there was a loud crackling sound as the blade of her sword literally hit the ice. Thinking she had deflected all of the icicle shards with ease, Elsa then smirked at Ethan.

"If you were trying to 'cool' me off with your little ice toys, blue ranger, you're going to have to do better than that." Elsa sneered.

"Oh, really?" Ethan asked.

"Really," Elsa replied coldly as she raised her sword arm to attack. But just as she raised it Elsa then felt a numbing sensation coming from her arm. Then when she looked at it she saw half of her arm from where the elbow met with her bicep to the very tip of her sword was completely frozen.

_What the hell-?_

"What's the matter? Feelin' a little 'chilled', Elsa?" Ethan taunted.

Elsa just fumed as she looked at her arm, her face twisting into that of concentration. In no time the ice freezing her arm cracked and shattered off, unfreezing it.

_Okay, maybe not._ Ethan thought.

Elsa then twirled her sword and charged at Ethan head on. Ethan blocked her blow with his shield, then he struck back with his Thunder-max saber twice. Once to knock her sword arm away, then again as a direct blow, which he then followed up with a fierce roundhouse kick, knocking Elsa back a few feet.

"Hey!" Trent called out as he and the others, who had just finished taking care of the rest of the drones ran up to where Ethan was.

"Hey guys." Ethan said.

"Did we miss anything?" Conner asked.

"No, in fact you're just in time." Ethan replied.

Elsa got up on her feet, seeing the four Rangers all set and ready for whatever she was going to do. She then tried to look around the backyard for her Tyrannodrones but most of them were either incapacitated or were limping away towards an invisiportal.

_Mesogog's going to tear my head off for this._ Elsa thought angrily.

"Bitten off more than you can chew this time?" Kira joked as she and the others tried to corner her.

"Hardly." Elsa said.

"So…are you going to give up now, or what?" Trent asked.

"This isn't over yet, Rangers." Elsa snapped. "And it's definitely not over for _you_, not by a long shot." She then said to Krista menacingly as she disappeared through an invisiportal.

"She doesn't need Prozac man, she needs therapy." Ethan said as he turned to his friends.

"You can say that again." Trent agreed.

"So are you okay?" Conner asked as Krista came running over to where they were.

"Yeah, just a little shaken up, but nothing serious." Krista replied.

"But what were those guys doing here?"

"I don't know." Krista replied. "They said they wanted a gemstone I had found, but I don't know what the big deal is or why they would want it."

"Well, they wanted it for some reason, and if we know Elsa and her cronies, she's not going to give up that easily." Kira said. "She'll try to get it again."

"Great." Krista said sarcastically.

"Hey, don't worry." Conner said as he put a reassuring hand on Krista's shoulder. "If I have anything to say about it, they're not even going to get within 20 feet near you, much less try to steal that gemstone."

"Thanks." Krista said, a look of surprise crossing her face as she heard him say it. While hearing the Red Ranger say something like that to her made Krista feel more than just giddy inside, she couldn't help but feel as if though she had heard that kind of sincerity before.

"Hey, I mean every word." Conner said whole-heartedly.

Suddenly the Ranger's morphers sounded off. Not wanting Krista to overhear who was on the other end, Conner walked a couple of steps away from the others and spoke into his morpher.

"What's up?" He said in a low voice.

"Conner, relax." Tommy spoke. "I'm speaking through your helmet, not your morpher. Don't worry, Krista can't hear it."

"Oh, okay." Conner sighed in relief.

"Listen, you guys did a good job back there, all of you."

"Thanks doc."

"You're welcome." Tommy said to his student. "Come back to the lab. Let's see if we can try and rethink a strategy of our own."

"Got it." Conner answered as he then made his way back to the others. Fortunately Ethan, Kira, and Trent had heard their teacher as well, so they were up to speed too.

"You guys hear-?"

"Yeah, we did." Trent replied.

"What's going on?" Krista asked.

"Oh, we just have to head back to HQ, see if we can try and come up with a plan." Conner said as their Raptor cycles and Trent's ATV appeared.

"Oh, okay." Krista said, impressed by the look of the vehicles. "Nice bikes."

"Thanks. Friend of ours made 'em." Ethan said as he and the others mounted their respective vehicles.

Except Conner, who was still standing next to Krista.

"So…will you be all right?" Conner asked.

"Yeah." Krista replied as she fought a small wave of giddiness from talking to the Red Ranger. "But thanks for saving me though."

"Anytime." Conner said sincerely. "Well…see ya." He said as he made his way to his Raptor cycle.

"Wait!" Krista said which got Conner's attention.

"Yeah?" Conner asked.

"Look, I know this probably sounds a little bit silly, but…will I…see you around?"

At that point Conner wanted nothing more than to just take his helmet off and say "Yes.", or just demorph. And looking into Krista's emerald green eyes the temptation to do so was getting pretty strong by the second. He inwardly thanked the fact that the helmet covered his entire face, because if it didn't he wasn't sure if he would be able to control himself.

But either way, he knew he had to answer her, and he still wanted to answer her honestly.

"Definitely." Conner said.

Krista's eyes shone, and a warm smile crossed her face as she bushed, which made Conner smile as well.

"All right, come on guys." Conner said. "Let's go."

So as the four Rangers revved up their engines and took off, Krista spent a while looking at where they went, and she stayed looking in that direction for a while.

--

"Well?"

"Well??" Elsa asked as she stepped into the main room of the fortress.

"Well, where's the gem?" Mesogog asked. "Where's the gem that, if I remember correctly-you had promised (profusely at that) you would bring back to me with little to no trouble?"

Elsa stayed quiet for a while before she could come up with an answer.

"I was just about to when the Rangers showed up, and unfortunately the plan was hitched." Elsa said, inwardly seething. "But I can assure you I had everything-"

Mesogog then raised his claw to shut her up. Then he got up from his chair to look her square in the eye.

"Elsa, I know I say this more often than I should, and quite frankly I'm getting more than just a little tired of it, so this time, don't just listen well, _engrave_ it into your brain before I do: Whether the Rangers interfered with this little operation or not I could really care less about. What matters is that you get me that gem, regardless of what you need to do, and if you so much as to try and mount some other kind of weak defense, let me put it in plain, simple English for you: I want that gem, Elsa. Not excuses. Do you understand that?"

Elsa exhaled heavily before replying. "Yes, my lord."

"Good."


	7. Ranger Harmony

Chapter 6-Ranger Harmony

"Thanks for coming along, Kat."

"It's my pleasure, Kira." Kat replied as she and Kira rode along with Tommy in his jeep as they drove down a highway on their way to Tanya's house in Angel Grove. "Besides, I haven't seen Angel Grove in so long…I've wanted to come back and see it again."

"That makes two of us." Tommy agreed, since the only times he had ever been back to Angel Grove was for Jason and Emily's wedding, and if he was ever taking a break from his paleontology travels and he happened to be in the neighborhood, which was _very_ few and far between. And the last time had been just a couple of years ago.

After Kira and the others had gotten back to the Dino Ruins yesterday everyone debated over how they could try to keep Elsa from getting her hands on the gem, as well as try to figure out how to be able to get the gem without compromising their identities and without Krista getting suspicious about anything. That is, if the gem _didn't_ bond to her DNA. However, if it _did_, it would only make things more complicated than they already were…

…or, at least to Conner, it would.

Though everybody knew that for the moment Elsa wouldn't try to steal the gem, they knew she would try again later. Then Ethan suggested that until Elsa made her next move they keep Krista on surveillance with at least one of them keeping an eye on her from the Dino Ruins. That way they could keep an eye on her and they'd be ready when Elsa made her next move.

Conner protested a little at this, since he felt that they were kind of using Krista as bait just to draw Elsa out, plus they couldn't exactly watch her every second of everyday.

But then Dr. Oliver said that Krista would be kept under surveillance until she got home. Then she would at least be safe for the time she was in her house.

"Mesogog and Elsa may be desperate to get that gem, but they're not completely stupid." He said. "If they see a chance to steal the gem, they're going to want to do it as quickly as possible without attracting a lot of attention. In Mesogog's opinion, too much attention means too much time wasted, and usually when that happens, mistakes can and will happen, and Mesogog _hates_ mistakes."

So with this in mind, Conner agreed (albeit rather reluctantly) along with everyone else.

Since Krista had been at her house when she was attacked, Tommy and the others kept an eye on her house for a while (just to make sure Elsa wouldn't strike again), and then Tommy programmed the tracking system (or at least as best he could) to where it would run a full round-the-clock surveillance on Krista for as long as she wasn't in school, the cyber café, or her own house. Tommy didn't think Elsa would be stupid enough to try attacking Krista, but Conner wasn't so sure. So finally Tommy programmed it to keep an eye on the outside of the house just in case.

Now it was just a day later, and so far Elsa hadn't tried any attempts as of yet, but the computer would let Tommy know if she did.

So the rest of the day went by as any usual Friday, with Conner hanging out with Krista a little more than usual (though he stayed as casual as possible).

After class let out, the five Rangers headed to Hayley's cyberspace to get some homework done and meet their teacher there. Kira especially, since she was planning on going to Tanya's house to show her some demos. She already had gone ahead and told her parents she was going to go to a friend of her teacher's who happened to be a producer of sorts and she was going to go show her some demos, and see if anything comes out of it, if any.

Though Elsa didn't make an attempt on kidnapping Krista after school, or even as she was heading home (according to Hayley anyway, who had been brought up to date about the whole Krista/dino gem situation. Needless to say, she was more than a little surprised that Krista was the one who found the gem) nobody wanted to take any chances, so Ethan and Conner stayed behind at Hayley's café (namely, the backroom) so they could keep an eye on Krista via surveillance. Trent sadly couldn't go with Kira, for he had to work, but he did wish Kira the best of luck and hoped everything would go alright.

So far the drive from Reefside to Angel Grove took about 1 ½ hours, so it wasn't taking as long as Kira had originally thought to get there. Once they reached the city limits Tommy then followed Kat's instructions how to get to Tanya's house as she told him where to turn and such. Though they (along with Jason, Emily, and Rocky) still lived in Angel Grove, Tanya and Adam had moved around a bit over the years.

"Am I heading in the right direction?" Tommy asked.

"Yeah, don't worry." Kat replied. "Oh, there it is, turn right here." She said as she pointed to a nearby street on the jeep's right-hand side.

Once Tommy turned onto the street Kat pointed to, he then drove for a bit until Kat pointed out Tanya's house, which was the fifth house on the left.

Tanya was outside watering the plants around the front of the house and had just finished up when she then saw Tommy's jeep pull up onto her driveway alongside her car. She smiled and waved at the three as she made her way to the garage to put away her watering can before going over to meet them.

"Hi guys!" Tanya called out.

"Hi Tanya!" Katherine said as she, Tommy, and Kira stepped out of the jeep and greeted her.

"So I take it you guys didn't have much trouble getting here?" Tanya asked her best friend as she hugged her.

"Not too much." Tommy replied.

"I think if it had been two hours later and we were still on the road, _then_ I'd say we would have had a problem." Kira said.

"Yeah, that's true." Tanya agreed. "Well, come on. Let's go in before we freeze."

"So where's Adam?" Tommy asked as they stepped into Tanya's house via the garage.

"Oh, he's over at Disney right now." Tanya replied. "He was only going to work during the morning, but since one of his co-workers (who was going to work the afternoon shift after him) came down with the cold, he's working a few extra hours today."

"He's works at the 'Lights, motors, action' stunt show, right?" Kira asked, remembering Tanya's boyfriend saying where in Disney he worked at.

"Yeah." Tanya answered.

"Does he actually drive the cars as they drive past the fires…?" Kat asked

Tanya nodded. "As much as I kind of wish it was without the fires…yeah."

"Hopefully he'll be alright." Tommy said. "I mean, he _has_ been doing that for years…"

"I know," Tanya agreed. "I mean, even though I'm used to him doing that by now, that doesn't stop _me_ from worrying at times. But anyway, come on. Let's do what you guys (or namely Kira here) came here to do."

So she led them from the kitchen to the living room, to a room in the house Tanya had converted (with help from Adam, of course) into a sort of makeshift recording studio, complete with all the usual things one would find in a recording studio, with a small podium in a corner of the room with a microphone and a lamp attached to it.

"So what do you think?" Tanya asked.

"Wow," Kira remarked as she looked around the studio-converted room. Even Tommy and Kat were surprised.

"It took me and Adam about a month just to get everything set up where I wanted them, then another couple of days just to hook them up properly." Tanya explained. "And let me tell you, we had more than a few mishaps as we were trying to do that."

"I can only imagine." Kira said.

"So you've actually recorded Michael McDonald and some other artists here?" Tommy asked.

"Not _here_ per se, but I've done cutting of songs he did here, and some rhythm programming as well, but not a full fledged song, (well, except for ones I've recorded and sung myself)."

"You sing too?"

"Mm-hmm." Tanya nodded. "Actually I was around your age when I started to." She said. "Interestingly enough, a record producer was in town at around the same time and when he heard me sing, he offered me a record deal straight up."

"And…did you take it?" Kira asked curiously.

"Well, in the beginning I was a little torn (keep in mind, I was a Ranger at the time (and still new), and I didn't want to let my friends down, even if it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to do something I had only dreamt of)." Tanya recollected. "And thanks to Adam, I almost took that deal, but then I realized that as awesome as it would have been to accept it, there were other things that were even more important to me, and it wasn't just my duties as a ranger, it was also…my friends, Adam especially. So…I told the producer no."

"Wow." Kira said softly.

"But even though I told them no, that didn't mean that I didn't want to pursue a music career, it just meant that I would have to work a little bit harder to get there." Tanya continued. "So after I graduated high school, I took a job as a DJ at the radio station and after I (along with Adam, Kat, and Tommy) passed on the power, I went to Angel Grove U, majored in music, and the rest is history."

"But you still want to do an album of your own though, right?" Kira asked.

"Oh, yeah, definitely." Tanya replied. "I still want to do that, but right now, until then, I've gotten used to producing and such behind the recording reins, and I like it a lot, especially since you get the chance to work on the music in a very intimate way, and you feel like it's as much your project as anyone else that's working on the album."

"I can imagine." Kira said.

"But anyway, come on. Let's get started." Tanya said as she walked over to the corner of the room where the amplifiers and recording equipment were. Kira sat next to her as she reached into her backpack and pulled out two demo tapes.

"So are these it?" Tanya asked as she looked at the tape cases.

"Yeah." Kira answered.

"Hmm. Nice little cover art." Tanya remarked as she looked at the case's cover art, which was a hand-drawn picture of Kira by a chair.

"Trent did this, didn't he?"

"Yeah, he did." Kira said with a slight blush.

"Y' know, if you ladies need some privacy, I can step out if you want." Tommy offered, not wanting to be in the way if he was.

"No, its okay Dr. O, you're not." Kira said. "Besides, I kind of need an audience anyway, even if it's just two other people."

Kat and Tommy then took two chairs from a side of the room and brought them near where Tanya and Kira were to listen in.

Tanya then opened a cassette deck and placed one of the demo tapes in. In a few seconds, the intro to "Freak you out" started to play.

--

(A while later)

"So, what do you think?" Kira asked once they finished listening to all of her demos.

"Honestly?" Tanya asked.

Kira nodded.

"I like them." Tanya said. "They still need some polishing in a few places here and there, but as a whole, I'd say that these songs are great."

"So does that mean that…?" Kira asked, already getting a feeling, but still wanting to hear…

Tanya nodded with a smile. "Miss Kira Ford, my name is Tanya Sloan, and as of this moment, as well as being a new friend of yours and a former Ranger, I'm now your new producer." She said as she extended her hand, and Kira, ecstatic beyond reason, shook it, with her teacher and Katherine smiling brightly.

--

AN: WHEW! I thought I'd nevah get this thing done, man! Well guys, here it is, my last upload of the year. I'm sorry I couldn't have gotten this out a few days back, but what with the holidays, it wasn't easy. But here it is, read it and stay tuned for the next one. Hopefully this chapter is good to read, if not, let me know. Well, I'm off to my aunt's for New Year's Eve. So enjoy everyone, and HAPPY NEW YEAR! (Feliz ano Nuevo!)


	8. Past reignited

AN: Hi everyone. Now I'm sorry that I haven't updated during these two months, and I know that some of you were probably wondering if I had dropped off the face the earth or something, but I can assure you guys I'm okay, and that the only thing that had been bugging the hell out of me was another nasty case of writer's block. I don't know what happened but I ended up spending most of January not even touching my fics at all. So until I could find some inspiration I spent most of my free time getting and playing a DS lite (finally) and a Wii (I didn't pre-order mine) while I tried to get some inspiration. And then finally around the end of January and the start of February I finally got out of my writer's block and wrote the chapter.

Hopefully you guys like it.

P.S.: Has anybody seen Operation Overdrive yet? I've seen it and I think it's got potential, but I've a feeling Kalish (Exec. Producer) might screw this one over.

--

Chapter 7-A past reignited

SCANNING FOR DARK ENERGY…

STANDBY.

So far those seemed to be the only words that Tommy, Conner, and Ethan were seeing as they looked at the computer screen in the cyber café's backroom.

For the rest of the weekend Tommy, Kat, Hayley, and Tommy's students had pretty much kept a close eye on Krista, watching her comings and goings from home and such, making sure that Elsa didn't attempt to ambush her and steal the gem. Interestingly enough, she didn't appear at all during those two days, but all the same, nobody (particularly Conner) wanted to take any chances.

But even though they were keeping Krista on surveillance at one point or another (at least one person was watching the surveillance on the Dino Ruins' mainframe), they still were able to do their everyday things that they would usually do anyway (Kira working on her songs; Ethan playing on his games (whether it be on his PS2, or even his newly-bought DS); Trent working on his drawings; or merely going out in Tommy and Katherine's case, even if it was just to look for a car for Kat to use, since she was either taking the bus to work or having Tommy give her a ride. As much as Kat loved having Tommy give her a ride as much as he could, she still wanted to have her own transportation to get to places.).

After school had let out on Monday, Tommy and his students headed to Hayley's Cyberspace so they could continue with their surveillance on Krista (even though Conner had a feeling that she was already at Cosmos). Fortunately Kat was at the dance school too, so it made things a little bit easier.

Now here were Tommy and his two students (Kira was performing at the cyberspace's makeshift stage, and Trent was helping Hayley wait on the customers, though he and Kira would occasionally step into the back to see if anything new had come up) sitting in front of the computer screen an hour and a half later, and so far there hadn't been any Elsa/Ranger-clone/Tyrannodrone activity near the dance school, much less anywhere else in the city. And the only thing that seemed to actually catch any attention at all was Conner's semi-nervous fidgeting and his vain attempts to not let his teacher and/or his friend see him like that.

"Bro, are you feeling okay?" Ethan asked.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?" Conner asked semi-rhetorically.

"I don't know, it's just that you look a little…tense."

"I'm _not_ tense, Ethan." Conner replied firmly as he took another look at the screen. _Not tense at all._ After a few seconds he sighed to himself and slumped back into the plastic chair a bit before getting up from his seat and unconsciously start to pace around.

"Then I don't suppose I could ask you as to why the hell you're doing that, could I?" Ethan asked.

Conner almost replied, but he held his tongue at the last second and just sighed to himself as he continued to pace some more. The emotions he was feeling at that moment were getting just a little bit too much for him to handle, and the fact that Ethan was asking him these things wasn't making it any better.

Tommy, who was hearing the exchange, turned in his seat and looked at where Conner was pacing around. Though Conner had his back turned as he paced, Tommy didn't need to look at his student's face to know he was worried, and _who_ he was worried about.

"Conner, for what it's worth, I can only imagine as to what you're probably feeling right now, but you've got to try to be optimistic." Tommy said.

"Besides, you're only going to end up wearing a hole in the floor." Ethan added.

Conner sighed. "Guys, believe me…I know that, it's just…Krista's over there, at the dance school (granted, since Kat's her dance teacher, she's over there too, which makes things a little bit easy) and the only thing _we're_ doing is sitting _here_, twiddling our thumbs and hoping that Elsa makes her move."

"Believe me, I don't like it any more than you do, Conner. But…unfortunately, this is all we can do at the moment." Tommy said.

Taking in his teacher/mentor's words, Conner just sighed loudly to himself and swallowed his pride before joining his teacher and friend by the computer.

"I know, it's just…look, I'm sorry if I sound like I'm ranting, but…I don't know, it's just…I can't help but think maybe we should be doing more to help out besides sitting here."

Tommy nodded with an understanding air. "You're not alone, Conner." He said. "But again, for right now, all we can do is keep an eye on things from here, and if Elsa does make her move, we'll be ready. And _if_ she has a surprise trap waiting for us, then we'll just have to let her spring it."

"And try not to get caught in it." Ethan said.

--

(45 minutes later)

"Thanks for showing me that move earlier, Miss Hillard." Krista said to Kat as they stepped out the doors of the dance school to the parking lot where Krista's car was.

"So do you think you got it now?"

"Yeah, I think after you showed me that little technique, I think I got it then." Krista replied.

"Good, I'm glad." Kat said.

Though dance class had already let out for the day and almost everyone (except Linda) had headed home. However Krista had stayed behind a while longer because there was one technique Jessica had taught her today and Krista wanted to work on it at the school a little more so she asked Kat if she could help her out with it and Kat agreed. It didn't take very long and about fifteen minutes after they started Krista felt she had learned it to where she could practice it on her own and headed to the locker room to change. Kat was eager to head to Hayley's cyberspace to meet up with Tommy and the others, so she headed to the locker room to change as well. While changing clothes, Kat saw out of the corner of her eye the dino gem sticking out of the main pocket of Krista's bag which brought a sense of worry to her.

Katherine knew that if Elsa hadn't made another attempt on Krista to get the gem yet, it would only be a matter of time before she did. But the burning question that was running through her mind was, did the gem bond to her DNA or not? And if it didn't, how were they going to get the gem from Krista and keep Elsa from getting it all at the same time? Kat knew she couldn't ask Krista for a ride to Hayley's just to make sure if Elsa made an attempt she could help Krista out before Tommy and his students showed because it just wouldn't be right. Giving up on any ideas she could come up with at that moment Kat then decided to just keep an eye on Krista until she pulled out of the parking lot before she took the bus to the cyber café. Fortunately though, she knew that Tommy and the others had Krista on surveillance so it did give her some comfort to know they were keeping an eye on her from their end.

"Well, have a safe drive home, and keep working on the techniques Jessica showed you, all right?"

"Will do." Krista replied. "See ya, Kat."

"Bye."

Not knowing that Kat was keeping watch from inside, Krista then made her way from the dance school to her car. However, no sooner was she within 2 feet from it did an invisiportal open up and out appeared Elsa, the white Ranger clone, and a team of Tyrannodrones.

"So did your dance class go well?" Elsa asked sarcastically.

Krista didn't answer, she just glared back at the cyborg and tightened her grip on her gym bag.

"I thought you freaks were done bugging me." Krista said.

Elsa just sneered.

"And I thought you would've been smart and given me the gemstone when I had been nice enough to ask. But I guess neither of us are as smart as we think we are, huh?" Elsa asked rhetorically.

Krista just frowned.

--

"Uh, Dr. O…"

"I know Conner, I see it." Tommy said to his student as he got up from his seat in front of the computer with Ethan and Conner following. At that exact moment, Trent, Kira, and Hayley stepped into the back room wondering if anything came up yet.

"So, anything yet?" Trent asked.

"In a word…yeah." Ethan replied.

"What's going on?" Kira asked.

"The short version? Elsa's at the dance school, and if we don't haul ass over there _now_, Krista's toast." Conner said as he activated his morpher on his bracelet. _Along with the rest of us._

He didn't need to say anything more; Kira and Trent quickly joined him and the others without even needing to hear anything else.

"Good luck out there, guys." Hayley said.

"Thanks Hayley." Conner said.

"Ready?" Tommy said.

"Ready!" Replied his students as their own morphers appeared.

"Dino-thunder, power up!"

"White Ranger, dino power!"

--

"You know, you could make this whole thing easy right now and just give me the gem." Elsa said as she and the tyrannodrones began to surround Krista.

"And what if I don't exactly have it with me?"

Elsa just sneered. "Well, then I guess the tracking system I was using must have been a little on the faulty side." She said sarcastically. "Now you can say whatever BS you want (I personally don't care), but I know for a fact you have the gemstone with you. So I'll say it again one more time…we can do this the easy way, or…"

Krista said nothing. Though Elsa let it hang, Krista didn't need to hear the rest to know what the cyborg meant. And she knew if she didn't think of something fast, she was going to find herself dismembered in more ways than she could imagine. However, in spite of the fact that she was surrounded by Tyrannodrones, and even though part of her mind was saying to just fork over the gemstone, Krista just couldn't bring herself to do it. She didn't know why, but she just couldn't do it.

"Sorry to disappoint you, but the answer's still _no_." Krista said firmly. "Now granted, I may not know as to what that gemstone is, much less what it can do, and me finding it may have been just been pure coincidence and nothing else, but somehow I really doubt that it would be meant for someone like you to have. So if you want the gem so badly, then you might as well just come and take it."

Elsa's eyes narrowed as she fumed.

"Have it your way." She seethed before drawing her sword.

Two Tyrannodrones then grabbed Krista before she could even react to them. She struggled as she tried to break free, but the drones' grip didn't yield.

"Y' know, it's true what my master once said, why is it that humans like you have to be so stubborn and learn things the hard way?" Elsa said as she stepped closer to Krista and readied her sword. At first Krista thought that the cyborg was going to slice her in half, but when she saw her glare was not in her direction and was towards something else, that's when she realized that she was just going to slice the bag clean open and take the gem.

"Back off!"

Elsa was just about to slice the strap off the girl's shoulder when she heard another voice nearby, but before she could do anything she saw someone do a somersault and execute a flying kick on one of the drones that had a hold on Krista. The blow connected, causing the drone to lose its grip on the teen and be sent flying into the air for a short distance before landing back on the ground.

Krista and Elsa then turned where the person that had attacked the drone was and saw none other than Katherine in a fighting stance.

Not wanting to give the other drone that still had a hold on Krista time to react Kat then did a sort of double kick on the drone, causing it to lose its grip on Krista and stumble a bit before Kat followed up with a roundhouse that put down the drone for good.

"Are you okay?" Kat asked as she turned her attention to Krista.

"Yeah, I'm fine." Krista replied.

No sooner did she see Kat did Elsa begin to inwardly seethe. Though she hadn't encountered the blonde-haired woman with the Australian accent in quite a while, the fact that she had been trounced by a mere human being with no Ranger powers not once, but a few times already was nothing short of humiliating for Elsa, and it was something that, even now she refused to forget about. And she had promised herself that if she ever saw her again, Elsa would make her pay in the worst way.

"So what brings you here?" Kat asked Elsa sarcastically. "Felt a sudden urge to learn ballet?"

"Hardly." Elsa retorted. "I guess it was too much to hope that I wouldn't have to run into _you_ again." She said, not even trying to hide her contempt. "Much less hope that, for your own sake you wouldn't stick your nose into my business again."

"Well, when you start terrorizing one of _my_ students, at a place where _I_ teach…I _make_ it my business." Kat replied unflinchingly.

"Well, I guess when you put it that way…I suppose it's only fair to pay you back…after _having humiliated me_!" Elsa yelled as she drew back her sword and fired an energy stream at the two women. Kat then kept Krista behind her as she braced herself, hoping it wouldn't hit her directly, and if it did, hopefully it would hit her and not Krista.

Suddenly she heard Tommy's voice from somewhere but she couldn't hear or see where, but then somehow the energy stream exploded around them, causing the area to be blanketed in smoke. Once Katherine saw the smoke clear she saw Tommy and his students standing in front of them, with Tommy holding his Brachio staff in a sort of parry. Suddenly Kat realized that Tommy had leaped in front of them and used his staff to block Elsa's energy stream.

_Too close._ Tommy thought to himself as he turned to his girlfriend, hoping she was all right.

"Are you two okay?" He asked.

"Yeah."

"Good." Conner said, inwardly relieved. "Now get to safety quick!"

"Sorry Red Ranger, but no one's going anywhere." Elsa said as all the Tyrannodrones gathered around her. "We're here for the gem, and if we have to skewer each and every one of you to do so…then so be it. Either way…it doesn't really make much difference to me."

Just before she finished her sentence Elsa raised her sword and pointed it at the Rangers, Kat and Krista, signaling the drones to attack.

Conner then turned to Krista. "You two get to safety, fast!"

"But what about you guys?" Krista asked.

"We'll be all right, just go!" Conner said. "We'll try to keep 'em busy here, now go!"

"He's right Krista, come on. Let's go." Kat said, once again feeling a twinge of frustration at not really being able to help her boyfriend or his students, but knowing that there wasn't much she could do in that situation, took Krista's hand and led her away from the fight. However, a small group of Tyrannodrones saw them trying to get away and broke away from the other drones to follow them.

Elsa saw them escaping and moved to follow, but then when Kira blocked her path with her Ptera grips at the ready, Elsa fumed in frustration as she fought back viciously, hoping to wear the yellow Ranger down and get to the two girls as well.

Linda had just stepped out of the dance school and had just finished locking up the front doors (with Kat's bag in hand since she had left it inside) when she saw Kat and Krista running right past her.

"Whoa, where's the fire?" She asked as she tried to hand Kat back her bag, wondering why they were in such a hurry.

"No time to explain Linda, but we need to get out of here _now_." Kat said as she took her bag back and quickly slung it around her shoulder.

"Why, what's going on?"

No sooner did Linda say that did a drone then land on the steps beside her with a _thud_, and as soon as she turned around her eyes widened in shock and fear.

Since Mesogog had programmed all the drones he sent with Elsa to lock-on to the energies given off by the gem, all the drone had to do was look at Krista, namely her bag and know she had the gem and moved to get to her, but since Kat was in front of her she blocked the drone's path.

"Not so fast." Kat said.

The drone then took a swing at Kat, which she blocked with her left arm before she countered with a front kick on the drone, knocking it down the steps.

"Come on, let's get out of here!"

Wasting no time the three women headed straight for Linda's car, which was fortunately on the other side of the parking lot, which was opposite of where the Rangers were fighting Elsa and the others, so Kat hoped they wouldn't have anything to worry about drone-wise.

Much to her dismay though, there was, for once they got close to Linda's car the same group of Tyrannodrones that had been following them decided to go around the school to try and cut them off.

_Great._ Kat thought as she sized the drones up. It was only a group of seven drones, not a whole dozen of them.

"You two get to the car, I'll keep them busy here."

"But-"

"Go!"

Knowing full well she couldn't do anything to help and that she'd only get herself hurt, Krista reluctantly nodded and followed Linda to her car while Kat took her bag off her shoulder, and tossed it aside to a safe distance to deal with the drones.

Though the group of drones were preoccupied with fighting Kat, one of them did take notice of Krista and Linda trying to escape and when its biomechanical eyes zoomed in on them it picked up the dino gem's energy reading. No sooner did the drone "see" that did it quickly act and move in on the two women as fast as it could.

"Miss Dawson, hurry!" Krista said to Linda as she fumbled through her keys to open the driver's door so she could get open the passenger door on Krista's side.

"Krista, I'm doing my best here." Linda replied. "Besides, I want to get as much distance from those things as badly as you do." She said as she then found the right key and opened her door, which she then hopped in and unlocked the door on Krista's side. Once it was unlocked, Krista then opened it, but before she could get in, sit down, and close it she then felt something grab her from behind. She quickly turned around and saw a lone Tyrannodrone by the door; while Krista and Linda were worrying about getting in the car it had it had snuck up on them, had grabbed onto Krista's bag and was now trying to yank it off her in an effort to get the gem inside it.

With Linda's help Krista pulled back on her end as hard as she could, but the drone's grip was too strong, and Krista tried to keep the strap of her bag on her shoulder while trying to shake the drone's grip.

"Let go!" Krista yelled at the drone.

"Krista, it's no use." Linda said. "The damn freak's not letting go."

Though the two women's arms were already getting tired, Krista was not about to let the drone get its claws on her bag, much less the gem inside it. Part of her had hoped that the Rangers (namely the red one) would have seen what was going on and come over to help, but if they were still occupied…

_Then why do I get the feeling that if this freak gets the gemstone, we're _all_ in trouble?_ Krista thought to herself as she ignored the burning soreness in her arms and yanked back one more time, to no avail.

"Hey!"

Katherine quickly grabbed the drone by its shoulders and with all her strength tried to loosen the drone's grip on Krista's bag, but with no success. Thinking quickly Kat then kicked the drone in the back of its left foot, causing the creature to lose its footing somewhat and almost fall back. But before the drone could regain its balance, Kat then used the momentum to somewhat raise the drone and semi-hurl it away from the car, sending it flying and careening to the ground, but in the process part of Krista's bag got torn.

Because the Tyrannodrone had been grabbing onto the actual bag itself and not the strap, when Kat semi-hurled it away, its claws tore into Krista's bag somewhat before it lost its grip. The tears in the bag weren't big, so none of Krista's clothes fell out…but when the drone's claws dug into the bag, the gem however, did.

Once the drone let go of Krista's bag Krista quickly shut the door and locked it right after her. Linda then quickly put the car key in the ignition and turned the car on.

"Miss Hillard, come on!" Krista yelled.

"No, go on ahead." Kat said. "Don't worry about me, I'll be alright."

Linda and Krista were torn. They didn't want to leave her there, but at the same they didn't want to take any chances that more Tyrannodrones would appear. Linda then opened her mouth as if to say something to Kat, but before she could say anything a Tyrannodrone appeared and pressed its claws and face against the side of Linda's window as if it was trying to break the glass to get to them. Needless to say, Linda and Krista screamed their heads off.

Acting on instinct Linda then switched to drive and hit the gas with so much force the drone got sent into a spin by the speeding car as it drove out of the parking lot and onto the main road.

Though she was relieved that they were away from the dinosaur freaks, Krista looked back where Cosmos was and prayed that her teacher would be all right.

When the gem flew out of Krista's bag, neither Krista nor Linda saw it fly out, but Kat did, and once she saw that Krista was safe she then turned her face from the road over to the parking lot hoping to see where the gem had landed, and there, just a few yards away, Kat saw the pale, discolored gem lying there just a few feet away from the downed drone. She quickly moved to get it, but no sooner did she take one step did a black boot step on the gem, not crushing it, but keeping it firmly on the ground.

"Looking for something?" Elsa asked with a casual tone and a smirk on her face.

Kat didn't answer her; she just kept a straight face and a defensive stance.

Elsa just smirked as she looked down and noticed the gem under her boot, even though she already knew the gem was under her foot.

"Oh, what's this here?" Elsa asked rhetorically as she moved her boot away from the gem, kneeled down and picked it up.

_No,_ Kat thought to herself.

The smirk on Elsa's face grew into a nasty grin as she looked at the dino gem as if it was made out of gold, then she started to gently toss it up a bit and catching it while giving Kat a smug look.

"You know, I'm not usually one to give gratitude to anybody (much less someone like _you_), but I have to say, I think I'll give some to you." Elsa sneered. "If I had known that in the end it was going to be this easy to get the gem, I would have just waited and bided my time until you stepped in."

Kat said nothing.

"Oh, come on, what's wrong? No 'You're welcome'?" Elsa taunted. "Well, either way, it doesn't matter now. Especially since I now have what I came for-"

"Wind strike!"

Before Elsa could even finish her sentence, a giant gust of wind kicked up in the air and started to slowly blow Elsa away. She tried to fight against it, but the wind was too strong and it literally knocked Elsa off her feet and sent her flying by a couple of yards. Luckily, Kat wasn't in the way of the blast, so she didn't feel it to where she got swept off her feet. She then turned slightly and saw Tommy and his students running onto the scene.

"What are you still doing here?" Tommy asked worriedly.

"Well, I ran into some old friends." Kat replied as she gestured to the downed drones.

"Obviously." Kira said.

Suddenly an invisiportal opened up and out appeared more Tyrannodrones in front of the Rangers and Kat.

"Looks like we're going into round two, guys." Ethan said.

_Great._ Everybody thought sarcastically.

Wasting no time, the sixsome engaged the drones.

Kat was able to fell two drones when she saw Elsa still on the ground and trying to get up. And not too far away from the cyborg was the dino gem itself. Not wanting to give Elsa even an inch of a second chance Kat broke off from the others and quickly ran towards it, hoping to get it before the cyborg could.

As Elsa staggered to get up she quickly realized that her right hand didn't have the gem anymore, and no sooner did she realize that did she see Kat running right where the gem was.

_Oh, no you don't._ Elsa fumed to herself as she got to her feet and threw her sword at Kat.

Just as Kat was about to reach it she then heard a whistling sound and when she turned her head to her right she saw Elsa's sword spinning right towards her and ducked just before the sword could reach her and decapitate her, but she was able to dodge it.

Seething even more, Elsa then somersaulted into the air, caught her sword on its return, and landed on the ground, executing a horizontal slash at Kat as she did so.

Kat ducked and retaliated with a foot sweep, knocking Elsa off balance but then as she went backwards she drove her sword into the ground and used it to regain her balance and do a vertical 180 degree spin, landing back on her feet. She then took up her sword again and charged at Kat and was about to slash at her again when Kat stopped Elsa's sword arm with her left as well as stopping Elsa's other arm with her right.

"You…have stood in my way…for the last…_time_!" Elsa snapped as she thrust her full body weight towards Kat, knocking her down.

"Kat!" Tommy yelled as he took out another drone and ran towards Elsa.

Elsa just kept her death glare on her face as she turned towards Tommy and fired an energy stream from her sword at him. Hoping to dodge it Tommy then dove forward and rolled before leaping into the air with his Brachio staff drawn.

"Brachio staff, energy orb!" Tommy yelled as he moved his staff in a circular motion, creating an energy orb and flinging it directly at Elsa, but Elsa just glared unflinchingly and traced her finger over the flat blade of her sword before slashing at the air, emitting two crescent-shaped energy waves at him. The first wave disrupted the orb somewhat, the second one disrupted it completely and went right through it and hit Tommy full-on, catching him off guard and sending him careening to the ground.

"This isn't any of your concern, Black Ranger." Elsa snapped. "So butt out!"

Just as she finished her sentence she then fired another energy stream at Tommy, which didn't really hurt him, but it did literally push him back a couple of yards, back to where his students were still fighting the Tyrannodrones.

"Now, where was I?" Elsa said casually as she then approached Kat, who was still on the ground trying to regain her strength to get back up. "Oh, yeah, now I remember…"

Though she tried to summon every ounce of her strength to get up, the only thing Kat could do was stagger back a bit, or at least as much as she could being in a sitting position.

Knowing full well that she had to do something fast or she was going to get skewered, Kat frantically tried to think of something to try to outfox Elsa, but at that moment she couldn't think of anything.

At that point she hoped that at least Tommy or one of his students could try to get to Elsa first before Elsa did her in, but they were at a pretty far distance that they wouldn't be able to get to her in time.

Fortunately Tommy saw them and broke into a run at breakneck speed, but even he was too far to reach them.

Then, at that moment, as she was looking from where Elsa was, to where her boyfriend was, and then to where Tommy's students were, Kat then saw just a short distance behind Elsa to her left (Kat's right)…was the dino gem itself.

But then a nearby lone Tyrannodrone saw it, picked it up and then tried to make its way over to where Elsa was only to be stopped by Tommy.

"Excuse me, but you wouldn't happen to be going somewhere with that gem by any chance, would you?" Tommy asked as he engaged the drone.

"You know, in a way I actually was thinking about finishing you off quickly, but to be honest, where would the fun in that be?" Elsa said tauntingly as she twirled her sword in an almost playful fashion. "So, got any last words?"

"Nothing _you'd_ want to hear." Kat answered.

"I didn't think so." Elsa said as she uttered out a battle cry and brought her sword down on Kat as if to slice her completely in half, but then, at that exact moment that the blade was going down Kat then put her feet together in a sort of clap on both sides of the blade, hoping to stop it before it sliced her. Fortunately for Katherine, it worked.

Caught by surprise, Elsa fumed as she strained with effort to try and break Kat's grip, but it wasn't yielding.

Kat was straining as well as she tried to keep a good grip on Elsa's blade with her feet, but she knew that she couldn't stay like that forever or Elsa would get her for sure.

Summoning up all her strength in her legs, Kat then moved them (with them still gripping Elsa's blade) to her left as hard and as fast as she could. The momentum caused Elsa to tumble chest first into the ground and roll a bit before stopping.

Meanwhile, as Tommy and the drone fought, Tommy then slashed at the drone with his Brachio staff and then followed it up with a double roundhouse kick. The drone dodged the slash and the first kick, but the second kick connected, knocking the drone down and knocking the dino gem from its hand.

As she got up, Kat saw the gem get flung from the drone's hand and into the air, and right to where she was. Whether she was acting almost on instinct or something else, Kat didn't know, but somehow…as she saw the gem fall right to her everything seemed to slow down around her as she stretched out her right arm to catch it.

No sooner did the gem land in Kat's hand did it light up and glow as brightly as a Christmas tree in Rockefeller center.

Kat looked a little puzzled at first as she saw the gem glowing brightly in her hand, wondering if the gem had glowed when Krista touched it (albeit for only a second) why was it glowing now that _she_ had it, and it was glowing for more than just a second. But no sooner did she think that did she then remember what Tommy had once said about how the gems work.

"_Somehow it just 'knows' if the person that's touching it is the one that's meant to use its powers. And if that still sounds confusing to anyone, I'll put it in a simple sentence:_ You_ don't choose the gem, _it_ chooses you."_

As Tommy's words echoed in Kat's mind along with remembering what his students had said about how their gems glowed for a time before flickering out, a feeling of realization then dawned on her, for she knew that her boyfriend's and his students' words, along with the gem glowing in her hand could mean only one thing.

_Is it even possible…?_ Kat thought to herself, feeling excited, but also feeling a sense of disbelief at the same time.

Though Elsa was on the ground, she did see Kat catch the gem in her hand, much to her dismay. But once she saw the gem glow in her hand did Elsa's face tighten up completely, as if she couldn't fathom what it was she was seeing, much less what it meant, even though she already knew.

_No, no, NO!_ Elsa raged in her mind. _Of all people it could've chosen…of all the most likely (or even the most unlikely) of candidates, it had to be _HER?

Already pissed off beyond reason, Elsa quickly rose to her feet.

Kat already heard Elsa's seething, and when she turned around to where she was Kat saw a death glare on the cyborg's face.

_Oh, boy._ Kat thought.

"Give. Me. That. Gem." Elsa seethed.

Kat then gave a little smirk. "Did you say the magic word first?"

Elsa then lost her temper and with a loud shriek she pointed her sword at Kat and fired a full energy stream at her. Kat then quickly leaped as high as she could into the air, hoping the stream would hit the ground, or that at least she could jump just high enough to avoid it.

Once she leapt, Kat saw she was able to dodge it, which was great, but what surprised the hell out of her was the fact that not only was she able to avoid the blast, she was floating 30 feet in the air!

_What in the world…?_

At first Elsa thought she had gotten her, but then when she saw Kat levitating in the air her face twisted in anger and frustration as she fired another energy stream at Kat, which she dodged by floating back to the ground quite quickly. Elsa then followed up with another stream which Kat dodged with a blindingly fast leap, then while in mid-air she then somersaulted slowly, then landed back on her feet.

"Feeling a bit winded, Elsa?" Kat asked in a taunting tone.

"Hardly." Elsa snapped. "But then again, you'd like to believe that, wouldn't you?" She said as she traced her two fingers over her sword and slashed the air in front of her, emitting a crescent wave at Kat.

"Look out!"

Before Kat could do anything do avoid Elsa's attack, she saw Tommy run towards her at a breakneck pace.

Like Elsa, Tommy had seen Kat grab the dino gem and once he saw the gem glow in Kat's hand he knew right then who it was the gem was meant for. Needless to say, he was a little bit surprised, but not by much. Plus in a lot of ways…knowing that the gem had in fact chosen her, he couldn't help but feel a warm smile spreading all over his face underneath his helmet.

Once he was within arm's length, Tommy then leapt toward Kat and grabbed her by her waist, pushing her over, but twisting his body to where he would end up landing on the ground and break her fall, and avoid the blast all at the same time.

Fortunately, it worked.

"Tommy, are you all right?" Kat asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Are you okay though?"

"Yeah." Kat said as she got up off her boyfriend and rose to her feet. Tommy did so as well, but just as he was about to get up he saw Kat reach a hand down to him. Smiling under his helmet, he grabbed Kat's hand with his own as she helped him to his feet.

"So the Black Knight rushes in to save his princess and in the end _she_ ends up helping him, how touching." Elsa mused disgustedly as Tommy and Kat faced her once they heard her voice.

"You know, to be honest I could really care less if there's two or seven of you, I'm still taking that gem." Elsa said.

"Is that so?" Kat asked sarcastically. "And just how exactly are you going to do that?"

"Simple: by prying it from your cold, rotting hands." Elsa said with a death glare on her face.

Kat said nothing, she just kept her cool and tightened her right hand around the gem as she kept her defensive stance, bracing herself for whatever Elsa had in mind when suddenly she saw a flash of energy come from her hand, which Tommy and Elsa noticed as well. Kat then opened her hand and saw the gem glowing once more, but this time it was somehow pulsing in her hand, giving out small waves of energy as it did so. Then suddenly she saw swirls of pink-colored energies swirling all over her body. At first they were just swirling around and not going anywhere, but then they started to move from different places on her body to where the gem was.

_What's going on?_ Kat thought.

As she then turned her gaze back to the dino gem she then saw the pink energies concentrating around it, and then…right before her eyes, the gem then turned from a dull, pale-shaded color to a full-fledged pink.

At that moment, Kat then felt herself moving her left hand up to where her right hand was. She wasn't moving it on purpose, but it was as if somehow the gem was making her do it.

Before Kat could say anything, the gem then floated up from her right hand and landed right on top of Kat's left wrist before disappearing in a flash of light.

Blinking from the flash, Katherine then looked where the gem had been and saw that it wasn't there anymore, but in its place was a strange-looking device on her wrist with what looked like a pink-colored dinosaur's face with an elongated nose.

Once she saw it, Kat didn't even need to be told what it was, she knew. Though she hadn't seen or used one in almost ten years, she knew what it was and what it meant.

Elsa had seen the flash too, and even though she was at a distance away, once she saw Kat looking at her wrist once the flash cleared she knew as well.

"Looks like the gem's already made its choice." Tommy said with a small grin as he locked eyes with the cyborg for a moment before turning to Kat, who then looked up from her hand to him.

Though his face was covered by his helmet, Kat knew Tommy was looking at her, and when he slightly nodded to her, Kat knew what he was saying with that nod.

_You know what to do._

Though Elsa already had a feeling that the writing was on the wall, she was not about to let this blonde-haired tramp get away with having the gem without a fight.

"So I was right; you _were_ a former Ranger after all." She said in a matter-of-fact tone.

"And did you just figure that out all by yourself?" Kat replied.

_Keep talking, slut. It'll make killing you all the more sweeter._ Elsa thought maliciously as she chose not to respond to Kat's comment, and instead tried to one-up her one-liner with one of her own. "Don't you think you're a little old now to be playing with kid's toys?"

Kat just narrowed her blue eyes with newfound determination.

"I may be a little bit older, but I can still pull it off with the best of them." Kat said unflinchingly.

_Well, it may have been a long time, but…here goes._ She thought to herself before she readied her morpher and uttered out the one word command Elsa and Mesogog had come to hate many times over.

"Dino-Thunder, power up!"

Once she activated her morpher everything went bright, and Kat then found her whole body (except her hands and head) instantly covered in a whitish aura. Acting purely on instinct Kat then brought her hands up as if she was getting ready to take a dive off a diving board, with the Dino-Thunder symbol appearing on her chest. She then jumped and felt as if she was jumping off a waterfall and instinctively began to somersault as she went down, color patterns already forming around her body. She then hit the water with a splash, but once she hit the ground the water then cleared away from her, revealing her in a kneeling position before her helmet appeared.

Once the bright flash disappeared Kat then appeared fully morphed as the Pink Dino-Thunder Power Ranger. Her costume looked more or less the same as Kira's, but with her own respective color signature as well as the white diamond shaped patterns across her arms, shoulders, and outer legs, along with her helmet having the face of the Icthyosaur and the Dino-Thunder symbol on her chest. Her suit's belt was also the same as everyone else's but instead of a Thunder-max blaster, there was a strange looking weapon in its holster.

Conner and his friends had just finished fighting the last of the Tyrannodrones when they noticed the flash. When they turned to where Elsa, Dr. Oliver and Katherine were they saw Elsa, and their teacher there, but instead of Kat, there was a Pink Ranger instead.

Though he wasn't exactly one to figure things out quickly, somehow, once Conner saw the Pink Ranger, he had a sudden feeling that…

_No way…_

"Uh, guys," Conner began. "I know I'm probably stating the obvious here, but is that Ranger who I think it is…?"

"I think so." Ethan replied.

"Then that means…" Trent said.

"She's the sixth." Kira supplied, not even bothering to hide the excitement in her voice. Though she didn't think that it was going to be likely, part of her had hoped that Kat would be the one the gem would ultimately bond to. Besides, she, like Dr. Oliver had been a longtime Ranger and therefore had experience that would be more than invaluable to them, Kira especially. Plus, during the time that she would hang with Kat or just talk to her, Kira found she could confide in her a lot and was starting to see her almost like the older sister she never had.

The White Ranger had broken off from fighting the other Rangers and joined Elsa when he too saw the new Ranger next to the Black Ranger in a fighting stance, ready for action. Not wanting to be left out Conner and the others rushed to join them.

"So you've got new Ranger powers, big deal." Elsa snapped as she readied her sword. "Let's see if you've still got it though."

Tommy and Kat took their stances and charged at the cyborg and the clone, with Tommy fighting the clone while Kat and Elsa squared off.

Elsa did a horizontal slash at Kat, which she dodged easily with a somersault flip. Kat landed just in time to see Elsa slash at her again but instead of dodging it Kat then raised her right arm to block it, hoping the blade wouldn't slice her arm off. Fortunately, it didn't, and Kat was then able to move her arm toward her right in a punching motion, causing Elsa's sword arm to abduct away from her body and almost make her lose her balance but Elsa regained it and countered with another slash, which Kat dodged with a leap and followed it up with a semi-bicycle kick which made Elsa stagger back a few steps.

Once she was back on her feet, Kat then drew out her weapon from her holster, which had a dark pink color and had the shape and resemblance of the dolphin-like dinosaur.

"Icthyo-lance!"

Once Kat had her weapon drawn, the "nose" of the weapon then extended up to a foot and several inches more than the lance itself, revealing the nose as a razor-sharp blade.

Not impressed, Elsa then came at her with a deadly slash, which Kat was able to parry but she still strained a bit against the weight of Elsa's sword. Kat then raised her lance arm, making Elsa raise her arm away as well and stagger back, leaving her vulnerable and allowing Kat to slash her across her suit where her stomach was, causing Elsa to shout out in half-pain, half-frustration.

"Is that all you've got?" Elsa taunted, still not wanting to believe that even though she hadn't been a ranger in a long while, Kat was still getting the best of her.

"Actually…no." Kat said as the blade on her Icthyo-lance retracted back to its usual length. As Kat then pointed her lance at the cyborg the lower "lip" of her weapon opened and fired a series of lasers at Elsa which she deflected with her sword arm while clutching the side of her stomach with the other.

"Nice try, bitch." Elsa sneered. "Now let me show you how it's supposed to be done."

As she said this then energized her sword and fired an energy stream at Kat which she dodged with a back-flip. Just before she landed Kat then pointed her Icthyo-lance at Elsa and returned fire, this time firing a full-fledged laser which hit Elsa point-on. Elsa then shrieked as she was knocked backwards by the blast and spun 180 degrees before landing on the ground chest first, followed by the White Ranger clone who had been fighting Tommy and was sent flying himself by Tommy's double roundhouse kick.

As the two villains struggled to get up, they then looked to where the Black and Pink rangers were and saw them still there with their weapons drawn. Plus the red, blue, white, and yellow rangers had finally caught up to where they were and were with them as well.

"All right, what did we miss?" Conner asked semi-rhetorically.

"Not _too_ much." Tommy answered.

"Game's over Elsa." Ethan said to the cyborg. "So if I were you two, I'd leave while I still can. Of course, we can always go for round 3 if you feel stupid enough to try again."

Elsa didn't say anything, and neither did the clone, but she did keep her steely gaze glued to the Rangers as she rose to her feet, particularly Katherine.

At that moment she didn't know whether to charge right at her and skewer her to the hilt, or just let out a loud shriek at her hoping that it would scare her (knowing full well it wouldn't), but as she stared at Kat point-blank Elsa felt a sudden rage the likes of which she hadn't felt before. Whether it had been because she had faced her before and got trounced by her all those times, or having now lost the gem to her in all senses of the word, or just both, Elsa wasn't sure. But either way, the rage she was feeling at that moment was enough to physically blind her.

Finally, after a few seconds (which to her felt like eternity) of just staring at Kat and not saying anything, Elsa finally spoke.

"You rangers may have won this round, and the gem may very well have (out of all people) chosen _you_ to harness its power." Elsa said to Kat. "But don't think for a second that it's going to stay that way. So slut, you can enjoy the gem as much as you want for all I care, but just bear in mind: somehow, someway, and I don't care if it takes days, weeks, or months, but somehow, I'll make sure that that gem ends up in Mesogog's hands, and then I will personally skin you piece by piece. And I will make sure that you stay alive long enough to feel _every_ single second of it."

And with that Elsa then mentally opened an invisiportal and she and the clone disappeared through it.

"Power down." Said the six Rangers as they demorphed. Once they did the four teens bombarded Kat with questions.

"So…how did…I mean…how were you able to…?" Kira began, completely amazed by having seen Kat's moves.

"I don't know." Kat replied, still in disbelief as she looked at her morpher. "Honestly Kira, I don't know. I just caught the gem, and…I just knew what to do from there."

"Well, if I know one thing, you can't really keep a true Ranger down, no matter how long he/she is away from it." Tommy said with a knowing air as he gently put his hand on his girlfriend's shoulder.

"I guess not." Kat agreed as she looked from her morpher to her new friends, and then to Tommy, his warm, deep, sincere smile mirroring her own.


	9. Interlude: Findings

Chapter 8-Interlude: Findings

As Elsa and the White Ranger clone stepped into the main laboratory/control room of the island fortress, they both felt a sense of eerie silence throughout the room, with the only sound being the sounds of their boots as they echoed off the walls.

"Just out of curiosity, did you consider waiting a few minutes (before coming in here) so you could come up with another one of your asinine excuses, or was the beating you received at the hands of Dr. Oliver's girlfriend too much for you to consider fabricating one this time?" Mesogog asked Elsa, his back turned to her as he stayed sitting in his chair.

Elsa didn't answer him. As far as she was concerned, her master could have been yelling at her and using his brainwave scrambler on her all at once and she still wouldn't even have responded. Though she could hear him loud and clear, Elsa's mind was somewhere else, mentally replaying the fight she had with Katherine, first when the tramp was in her regular civilian form, and then…in her Ranger form. And as much as she wanted to put it out of her mind to hear what Mesogog had to say (even though she knew it was probably going to be another chewing-out, as usual) she just couldn't get it out of her head.

Like an old record stuck in a loop, images of the fight kept repeating itself again and again in Elsa's head, so much so that that was all she could think about. And it was just making her seethe more and more.

"Well, judging by the silence I'm hearing and the look you have on your face, I suppose it was the latter." Mesogog said as he swiveled around in his chair to face his generals.

Elsa then finally broke out of her trance and faced her boss eye-to-eye as she tried to come up with a good explanation.

"Master, everything _was_ going according to plan." Elsa explained. "It took a while, but I was able to obtain the gem, but unfortunately…"

"'But fortunately…'what?" Mesogog asked, his tone still casual, but carrying a threatening undercurrent to it.

As Elsa internally struggled to try and explain, flashes of Kat trouncing her in her Ranger guise flowed through her brain again, breaking her train of thought.

"Tell you what Elsa, how about if I tell you (or at least from my point of view anyway) as to what _really_ happened, starting with when you and the Tyrannodrones showed up at the school." Mesogog said as he got up from his chair to look at Elsa square in the eye.

"Now it's true that a few moments after you got there you _did_ in fact obtain the gem (that I _will_ agree with you on), but instead of coming back here like you were supposed to, you chose to go ahead and let your own foolish pride take over, thus not only allowing Dr. Oliver to catch you completely off guard, but also allowing the dino gem to end up literally falling into his girlfriend's hands, which as you yourself saw, ended up creating ANOTHER POWER RANGER IN THE PROCESS!" Mesogog spat angrily. "WHICH MAKES THEM MORE OF A THREAT TO MY PLANS NOW THAN BEFORE AND EVEN MORE OF AN ANNOYANCE!"

"Now as tempting as it would be to scramble your brain beyond comprehension for proving your incompetence once again (as well as the White Ranger here), I think the beating you received at the hands of the Pink Ranger seems more fitting this time." Mesogog continued.

"Master-" Elsa began.

"_Elsa_," Mesogog hissed. "Do me a favor and stay quiet, and listen closely, for it probably may be the best (and only) advice I'll ever give you: The next time you decide to let your own pride get the best of you and ruin a perfectly well-thought-out plan, don't bother coming back, because otherwise you're going to find yourself in a place far worse than even where that idiot Lothor is right now. UNDERSTAND?"

"Yes, master." Elsa said, still raging to herself inside.

"Good. Now get out of my sight before I change my mind about the scrambling part." Mesogog hissed as the front of his forehead started to glow.

Elsa, not wanting to face another brainwave assault, quickly headed out of the lab and stormed back to her own chambers, with images of her and Kat slugging it out flashing over and over again in her mind.

--

SCANNER READY.

As soon as Tommy saw those words on the Dino Ruins' mainframe, Kat then handed him the Pink dino gem, to which Tommy then took and placed on top of what looked like a modified flatbed scanner and typed in some keys to start scanning the gem. Shortly after Elsa and the others retreated, Kat, Tommy, and his students then headed to the Dino Ruins to try and figure out the gem a little more. Though it was more than obvious that the gem had chosen Katherine to wield its power, there were still some questions that the group (namely Kat) wanted to know.

Fortunately, Tommy had then said that if anything, that's what they were going to find out once they had the computer scan it. "Hey, if nothing else, at least we'll know a little more than we did before."

"Tommy, are you sure you know how to use that?" Kat asked her boyfriend as she saw him typing in codes.

"I do." Tommy replied. "Maybe not as much as Hayley, but close enough." He concluded as he finished his typing, to which the screen then said, SCANNING…

"So how long do you think it'll take?" Kira asked.

"It shouldn't take long, especially since we've got the actual gem and not just _traces_ of it this time." Tommy answered as he turned back to the screen, which was now showing a full fledged picture of Kat's dino gem and what looked like readouts and information in a sort of statistics layout.

"So that's it?" Conner asked.

"Yep." Tommy answered his student as he maximized the window with the gem's information so they could all read it. Most of the gem's stats, like its dinosaur power signature (which was the Icthyosaur, of course) or its color scheme (Pink) or even its dino gem abilities (Manipulating the gravity around one's body regardless of environment) the group already knew by now, so aside from those things, along with the fact that it was a new gem, there weren't any other secrets about the gem that Tommy, Kat and Tommy's students didn't already know, or at least from what the computer was telling them.

"No other Easter eggs?" Ethan asked.

"From what I can tell, no." Tommy replied.

"But what about when after I had touched the gem, it turned from white to pink?" Kat asked.

"Good question." Tommy said, his eyes narrowing in thought as he looked back at the screen, namely to where it showed information about the gem's energies. When he had first looked at it just a few seconds before, it had only said, ENERGY SIGNATURE: DINO-THUNDER. Now as he looked back at it, the section now had a blinking sentence that said, DUAL-RANGER ENERGY SIGNATURES DETECTED.

"Hello, what's this here-?" Tommy asked himself as he moved the mouse to the blinking words and clicked it, opening up another window on the screen, showing an image of two energy streams on each side of the window, with a picture of the gem in the middle. Along with a strange numerical code below the images, both streams had names of what their energy signatures were. But while the one on the left side had the name DINO-THUNDER, the one on the right only said, UNKOWN. SEARCHING…

"Okay, now why is it saying that?" Ethan asked.

"I don't know," Tommy answered. "We'll see in a minute."

After a few seconds, a dialog box popped up and said SEARCH COMPLETE., to which Tommy clicked OK, closing the box and revealing the window of the two streams. And when Tommy turned to where it said for the second energy stream's signature, it now said, ZEO.

"ZEO?" Said Tommy's students at once.

"Wait a minute, weren't those the second powers you, Kat, and your other friends had gotten after the first ones, Dr. O?" Trent asked.

"Yeah, they were." Tommy said.

"But if I remember correctly, those were eventually upgraded to Turbo or something." Kira said, as she recollected seeing those parts in the video diary. "Why's the computer now saying that the gem's got _that_ power along with the Dino-Thunder ones?"

Tommy then sighed as he put his fist close to his mouth as his eyes narrowed in thought. Then Kat spoke up.

"It was after I touched it."

Everyone then looked at her.

"When I grabbed it, it didn't change colors at first, it only glowed (much like how yours did when you guys first touched them, I'm sure), but then after a while, it started to…I guess you can say _pulse_, and then I saw pink energies appear all over my body and then they all started to move towards the gem and then, at _that_ moment…_that's_ when it changed colors."

"But didn't you pass on the power to-damn, what was her name…" Conner began.

"Cassie?" Kat supplied.

"Yeah-Cassie-didn't you pass on the power to her?"

"Yes."

"Well, wouldn't that basically mean all your Ranger powers (or at least what you had at that point) were now hers?" Conner asked.

Kat nodded and shrugged slightly in agreement.

"Supposedly," Tommy then said. "But if I were to take a guess…I don't think even _that_ would mean that you'd lose _all_ your powers. Now granted, I've been a Ranger for the longest time, and yeah, I've studied the gems as thoroughly as possible, but even I'm not going to say I'm a complete expert on how Ranger energies work. But, even in spite of that, it wouldn't be too hard to imagine a former Ranger still having traces of Ranger-energy in his/her body, even though it wouldn't be enough to give you full power."

"So Elsa was right," Kat said as she remembered the cyborg telling Mesogog about the traces of energies she found in Kat's body. "There _were_ still some of the old Zeo powers inside me."

"Just enough to give the gem a color scheme of its own, albeit from someplace else." Tommy supplied, remembering Kat telling him about it shortly after Felectro was defeated.

Since there wasn't any other information about the gem (or at least what wasn't already known) Tommy then saved the information on the mainframe and took the gem off the scanner before handing it back to Kat.

"Well, at least we know why the gem changed from white to pink, but there's still one thing I don't get though." Conner said.

"What?" Ethan asked.

"Why didn't the gem already have its own color scheme? I mean, our gems (and I'm sure yours too, Dr. O) already had theirs from the word go, how come Kat's didn't?" He said as he pointed to Kat's gem.

Nobody said anything, but as they all looked at Kat's gem resting in the palm of her hand, they all pretty much were thinking more or less the same thing.

_Who knows?_

Finally Kat spoke up.

"Well, if anything, I guess we'll probably find out in time."

"More often than not." Tommy agreed.

"So what now?" Kat asked.

"Well, if you want, I can try and make a bracelet out of it so it's easier to carry around." Tommy offered.

"Okay." Kat said as she handed him her gem. But as Tommy prepared the computer, Kat then realized something and spoke up again.

"Wait, you said 'bracelet', right?"

"Yeah." Tommy said.

"Is it possible for the gem to be disguised as something else besides a bracelet?"

"Yeah, I suppose. Why?"

"Because I think if I have my morpher as a bracelet, it might attract some attention, if not arouse suspicion."

"How so?" Conner asked. "I mean, we've all worn ours almost everyday and almost everywhere we go (okay, I'll admit it, it's not exactly _my_ idea of a soccer player's attire, but what are you going to do?), and I don't think we've gotten anybody suspicious, guys?"

Ethan and Trent nodded, but Kira had a look of realization on her face as she looked at Katherine, as if figuring out why she was wondering about disguising the gem differently.

"True, but in my case, I think it will." Kat said.

"What do you mean?" Tommy asked.

Kat then answered with only one name, and that was all everyone else needed to hear to realize why she didn't want the gem as a bracelet.

"Krista."

"She was the one who found the gem, therefore she more than has an idea of what it looks like (even though yes, the gem's a different color now). If Krista were to come to dance class and see me wearing a bracelet with a gem that, while having a different color, has more or less the same shape and size as the one she had found, she may start to wonder as to why it looks so familiar, and with that, she could eventually start to figure other things out." Kat continued.

"Like why we all hang out with Dr. O more than any of our other teachers." Ethan guessed.

"Or why _we're_ not around when the _Power Rangers_ are around." Conner supplied.

"Or why whenever Krista needs help, either _you_ or a certain guy in Red happens to be around." Kira said with a semi-sneer.

"Ah-hah, ah-hah, very funny." Conner said, trying his best not to blush.

"Okay, so we definitely _can't_ disguise it as a bracelet, because obviously it'll make Krista suspicious, but it still needs a disguise though. The question is…what?" Tommy asked his girlfriend.

Kat thought for a second before an idea came to her and a small smile began to break across her mouth.

"I think I have an idea."


	10. And then there was six

AN: Hi paisanos! I'm sorry for the serious drought in updates but since I've finished class for the semester I've been enjoying my summer being with my folks, playing some games, and watching the big three movies: Spider-Man 3, Shrek the Third, and POTC: At World's End. If you haven't seen them yet, I strongly recommend you do. They're very good movies. (Now I just have to bide my time just a little more for Transformers…)

Oh, and speaking of movies, I've been to youtube a couple of times and I've seen some pretty awesome PR pairing videos. From powerrangersonline's "Accidentally in love"; jdoonan's "From this moment"; to katastrophe911 (Purple Strobe)'s "Te quiero tanto", "Everytime", "Head Over feet", "The letter"; nsrangerform's "I want to grow old with you"; Meloda26's "She's like the Wind"; navypowergirl's "Still"; fluffythefluffkeeper's "Collide"; bluemidnight02's "Angels have brought me here"; and NinjasKarateSensei19's "My love is for you". This isn't every single PR video I've seen on there, but I think if I say more it's probably going to take up the whole chapter. So if you get the chance check 'em out. You won't regret it. (Now if only I had video tools so I could do some of my own)

--

Chapter 9-And then there were six…

Krista adjusted her hold on her bag as she entered the doors of the dance school, where she saw other girls that had already arrived and were either talking or warming up, or doing a bit of both.

_Good thing they weren't here when that freak and her dinosaur posse showed up yesterday._ She thought.

Shortly after Linda and herself had gotten a good enough distance away from the dance school Krista asked her dance teacher if she could drive her home, which Linda was more than happy to do. As they got closer to Krista's house Linda asked her student about her car, which she had to leave behind at the dance school during the scuffle with Elsa and the Tyrannodrones, or what Linda called "Dino-zombie freakazoids.". Krista just sighed and said that hopefully if anything it would still be there, "and in one piece at that too."

"Let's hope so." Linda had said, even though she didn't feel convinced.

"Well, if from what I saw how that strange-looking woman and her 'Dino-zombie freakazoids' were acting, somehow I don't think my car was what they were after." Krista replied.

"Maybe," Linda said. "But that still doesn't explain why they tried to come after _you_ and try to take your bag though." Linda pondered.

_Because somehow a gemstone I had found five days ago seems to have gotten their attention, and I know if it hadn't been for the Rangers, I probably would've not only lost the gem, but I would've long been turned into dino-chow by this point._ Krista thought to herself. "Who knows?" Krista asked. "Maybe they somehow caught a fetish for dance and they just wanted some clothes to go with it."

Linda chuckled. "Probably."

When they finally got to Krista's house Krista checked to make sure that her clothes were still in her bag (which they were in spite of the Tyrannodrone's handiwork), thanked her teacher for the ride, and walked to her front door. Her parents were already home by this point, so once Krista merely rang the bell, her dad answered it right away. However, once her mom saw the gashes on her bag, she asked Krista where the slashes came from and Krista then told her parents what happened. Her parents were both shocked, and Krista's mom, having already witnessed an attack by the Tyrannodrones once before, almost went hysterical and asked Krista if she was sure she was all right, and Krista had insisted that she was.

"The Power Rangers showed up shortly after, so if those freaks wanted something out of me, they changed their minds pretty quickly once they saw the Rangers."

"Well, I suppose if _they_ had to show up to save you, I guess it's better than nothing." Krista's mom said with a sigh.

Krista was about to say something when she saw her dad gesture to her not to say anything. She had seen that kind of reaction on her mother's face many times before whenever the words "Power Rangers" would be spoken by someone or mentioned on TV and her mother was within earshot, and she just didn't know what the deal was.

Shortly after Krista took a shower and had dinner, she and her dad went back to Cosmos to try and get her car (and hope that it didn't get trashed during the fight). When they got there they saw burn marks all over the parking lot which at first scared Krista a bit as to how her car might be, but fortunately, Krista's car was still there, completely untouched from the fight that had ensued a while earlier, which made both Krista and her dad breathe out a sigh of relief.

Though she was relieved that her car was okay, and that the worst was over, Krista still couldn't help but wonder if her teacher Katherine was able to break away from the scuffle to get to safety, and also…what may have become of the gem and whether the dino-freaks and the strange woman in black had succeeded in getting their hands on it or not; and those two things weighed heavily on her mind for most of the night and through most of today.

Now as she was entering the dance school (with a spare bag in hand since her other one was trashed), walking to where all the other dance students were and getting herself ready for class, the burning questions still lingered.

Then when she saw Kat, along with Jessica, Linda and Victoria call everyone's attention and start splitting up everyone into their respective groups, Krista smiled and inwardly sighed in relief.

--

If somebody was to write down a list of all the synonyms that could go with how Katherine was feeling right now, the words, "glowing", "jovial", "ecstatic", would be close, but they still wouldn't completely describe how she felt. Granted, how she was feeling came only a close second to how she felt that night just a few weeks ago when she and Tommy had kissed for the first time in a long time, but still, at times it was enough to almost make her jump 100 feet into the air (which thanks to her dino gem power, she _could_) but for obvious reasons that wouldn't be such a good idea.

Shortly after Kat had gotten back to her apartment, she called up Tanya and told her what had happened. Though Tanya had been kept somewhat up to date about what had been going on gem-wise via her best friend for a while now, nothing could have prepared her for what Kat was going to say next. Once Kat told her that the gem had made her the sixth Dino-Thunder Power Ranger, Tanya flipped out.

"Girl, get out of town! Get out of town!"

"Believe me Tanya, I know it seems almost impossible to believe (okay, maybe not _impossible_), but…that's what happened." Kat said.

"So after you touched the gem, it did-whatever it is those gems do-and then you…morphed?"

"Pretty much." Kat replied.

"Wow." Tanya remarked. "I mean…wow." She said as she tried to absorb what her best friend had told her. "So just out of curiosity…when you morphed…how did it feel?"

"Like ten years hadn't even gone by at all." Kat answered sincerely.

Tanya smiled. "I can't imagine." She said. "So I believe that makes it six now, right?"

"I guess you can say that." Kat answered with a slight shrug.

"So now that you've got the gem…what are you going to keep it hidden as?" Tanya asked curiously.

"Well…everyone keeps theirs hidden as wrist bracelets."

"Bracelets?" Tanya said, a little baffled at her friend's answer. "Now I'm pretty sure Kira could pull that look off easily, but you're telling me that Tommy and the other guys walk around wearing morpher-disguised _bracelets_ on their wrists?"

"Yeah, pretty much." Kat replied with another shrug.

"Well, I suppose it's a lot better than showing the actual morpher itself, but if they're going to have them as a bling-bling accessory, I think it should look like something that's _not_ going to stick out like a sore thumb."

"Probably, but obviously Tommy and Hayley didn't have a problem with the look when they made the morphers, so if they felt a bracelet was the best way to go disguise-wise, then…"

"I suppose." Tanya conceded. "So were they able to make yours a bracelet?" Tanya asked curiously.

"Tommy was going to, but I told him no." Kat said.

"Why not?"

"Well, personally I don't mind having my morpher disguised as a bracelet, but there's one problem with me having it disguised as one though."

"What's that?"

"Krista, my dance student." Kat replied.

"Wasn't she the one who initially found the gem a couple of days back?" Tanya questioned.

"Yeah, she was." Kat answered.

"Okay, I still don't get what the problem might be." Tanya said, still a little confused.

"Since Krista's the one who found the gem first, she knows more or less what it looks like." Kat explained. "And from the bracelets I've seen on Tommy and his students, the gem can pretty much be seen on the bracelet itself."

"But the gem didn't have the same color as it did when _you_ literally had it in your hands." Tanya pointed out, already starting to figure out what Kat was getting at.

"You're right, it didn't, but still…I can't take that chance having it as a bracelet if the gem can be seen. Krista's a pretty smart girl and if she sees my bracelet and gets even a glimpse of a gem that looks like the one she had found a few days back, I've a feeling she might be able to put two and two together."

"Mm, that's true." Tanya said in agreement. "But that still leaves the question of what you going to disguise it as."

"Well fortunately…as I told Tommy, I think I know what disguise _would_ work."

"What?"

Kat then answered her best friend's question with one short sentence, and once she said it, Tanya found that she didn't need to say anything more on the subject.

"Y' know, it's a shame you didn't move there when Tommy and Hayley were first working on the morphers. _That_ probably would've been a way better idea."

"Thanks." Kat said.

"Well either way, good luck with it. Hopefully that disguise is just what you need."

"Me too Tanya." Kat said. "Me too."

After she finished talking to her best friend for a while more, Kat then looked through her backpack to find what she was looking for. Once she found it she then tested it to see if it worked, and much to her surprise, it still did.

Earlier today, after school had let out, Kat met up with Tommy, Hayley, and Tommy's students at his house (or more precisely, the Dino Ruins). Tommy then asked her what her idea had been, and Kat merely answered with a warm smile as she reached for her gym bag and pulled out the object she had found the other night. When she put the object in her boyfriend's outstretched hand Tommy's eyes widened and his mouth dropped open slightly and started to break into a grin.

"You still had this?" Tommy had asked.

"Yeah." Kat replied. "I did."

"Wait a second, is _that_ what I think it is…?" Ethan asked, having remembered seeing the object in his teacher's video diary a few times before.

"Yeah Ethan." Tommy answered his student. "It is."

Not wasting any time, Tommy then handed Hayley the object which she took and then asked Kat for her morpher, which appeared on Kat's left wrist as soon as she looked at it. Once she had both the morpher and the device, Hayley then sat down in front of the mainframe, which had a very strange contraption with what looked like two miniature satellite dishes that Hayley herself had placed and hooked up to the computer, Hayley started in earnest with Tommy, Kat, and Tommy's students watching closely.

Even though it didn't take Hayley long to make Conner's, Ethan's, and Kira's morphers into bracelets, this was different because the object Kat wanted as a disguise for her morpher wasn't a bracelet, so as the hour went by Hayley found it was going to take longer than what she had originally thought. Kat had to head for Cosmos to teach her dance class, so Tommy gave her a ride. While they were on their way there Kat wondered if it was a good idea to use the object at all, and Tommy said that it was, and that if anything Hayley would be able to find a way to get it to work.

"If I know one thing about Hayley, there's no program on a device she can't code. And if it doesn't work, she _finds_ a way to make it work." Tommy said.

Once they got there Tommy told her not to worry and that if anything they'd be a lot closer to getting the mechanism to work, if not already done when class let out.

Now that class had in fact let out, Kat was already hurrying up as much as she could so she'd be ready once Tommy picked her up. Though she was still car-less at the moment Kat had already looked through some cars in a catalog she had picked up at the dealership she and Tommy went to and after looking through some, finally decided on one but hadn't gone to fill out the paper work for it yet.

_Well, hopefully I'll be able to get it tomorrow._ She thought to herself as she stepped out of the locker room, already changed back into her regular clothes. Though she was eager to head back to the Dino Ruins, Katherine did however, want to talk to Krista about yesterday before she left, for she was pretty sure Krista was probably going to ask her questions like why she didn't go with her and Linda during the Tyrannodrone attack.

"Miss Hillard…?"

"Oh, hi Krista." Kat said with a smile as she turned and saw Krista walk up to her. "You know, I was actually hoping to talk to you about yesterday just before I left."

"Same here." Krista replied.

"Come on, let's talk outside."

Not wanting to attract attention to their conversation, Katherine and Krista walked out the doors and sat by the bench out front by the parking lot.

"While we're on the subject, there is one thing I do want to ask you though." Krista said.

"Sure."

"Yesterday…when Miss Dawson and I got into the car…why didn't you come with us?"

When she had chosen to stay behind Kat knew full well that Krista was going to ask her this question, and while she knew that for obvious reasons Kat couldn't tell her the whole truth, she knew she could at least tell her something that wouldn't be completely far-fetched and would be quite plausible.

"I guess you could call it an old habit that never really died." She said.

"What do you mean?" Krista asked.

"Well, years back…when I was around your age, I was living in Angel Grove at the time, and there had been a…I guess you could call it a monster attack much like what happened yesterday, and they were wreaking havoc on a construction project that myself and some friends of mine had been working on. Everyone had mostly gone to lunch, so it was just me taking a look the place and taking some pictures for my scrapbook. Anyway, I saw what they were doing, and while the smart thing would've been to run and get away from those…things, I just couldn't stand there and let them get away with trashing what me and my friends had worked on, so I stood my ground and held them off until the Power Rangers showed up and took care of things from there."

"But you could've gotten yourself hurt." Krista pointed out. "Or worse."

"I know." Kat said with an agreeing nod. "But I wasn't going to stand back and let those things shake you down for whatever it was they were here for."

Though that comment should have comforted Krista somewhat, it didn't.

"Well…I think I have an idea as to what they _might_ have been looking for."

"What?" Kat asked.

Krista then told her dance teacher as to what had happened a few days before; about how she found the gem and the encounters that she had with Elsa and the Power Rangers, and anything/everything else up until yesterday.

"Granted, I didn't know what that gemstone was or what it could do, but…I don't know, I just…I just couldn't let them have it if _that's_ what they were looking for."

"You did the right thing, Krista." Kat said sincerely.

"I know, but…still, I can't help but wonder if those freaks ended up getting the gem or not."

"Well, the Rangers were there too." Kat pointed out. "Hopefully, if anything, they probably might have gotten it before those dinosaur things did."

"I hope so." Krista said with a sigh. Though her experiences with monsters up until this encounter with Elsa had only been getting kidnapped by Zeltrax, Krista had a feeling those monsters would not have gone after her (namely, the gem) if it wasn't important to them in some way. And from what she saw yesterday…the same thing could also be said about the Rangers, albeit in an opposite sense.

Krista was about to say something when she saw Kat smile and wave at a jeep that pulled into the parking lot and steadily made its way to the front of the school, where they were.

"Hi Kat." Tommy called out as he unlocked the passenger door.

"Hi Tommy."

"Were you waiting long?"

"Oh, no. Class let out just a few minutes ago."

"Oh, okay. Cool." Tommy said, relieved that he hadn't taken too long. "Hi Krista."

"Hi Dr. Oliver." Krista replied, a look of semi-amusement on her face as she saw both of her teachers talk.

_Friends…right._ She thought to herself as she remembered Conner talking about them.

"So Krista, don't worry about it." Kat said as she got into the jeep. "If the Rangers did get it, then I'm pretty sure it's safe to say that it's in good hands."

"I hope so." Krista said with a smile.

"I'm sure." Kat said confidently. _In more ways than one._ "Well…I guess I'll see you tomorrow then." Kat said.

"Definitely." Krista. "See you then."

"Cheers."

--

"So…any luck?" Kat asked once she and Tommy joined Hayley and the others in the Dino Ruins.

"Well…in a nutshell…" Hayley said as she looked back at the screen that been saying, "CONFIGURING…" for what seemed like forever, the screen finally said, DISGUISE-CONFIGURATION COMPLETE.

Hayley didn't say anything else, for she merely gestured for Kat to come closer, and when Kat looked at the contraption Hayley had invented she saw her Dino-morpher still lying there as before. But then, suddenly…energy streams that looked like flames then enveloped the morpher itself, and for a brief second an image of the Dino-Thunder symbol passed over the morpher, which quickly disappeared along with the flames, and then…in place of Kat's Dino-morpher, was none other than the old wrist-watch communicator Billy had invented so many years ago.

"It's…?" Kat began.

"Yeah, it's finished." Hayley said with a big grin.

As Kat then slowly took the communicator and put it on her left wrist, she stared at it with her azure eyes in complete disbelief and wonder. Though she hadn't worn it in almost ten years, it felt like as if she hadn't ever taken it off at all.

As she looked at it, Kat noticed that even though it looked more or less the same as before, the communicator did have some slight differences to it that it had a digital screen and some more buttons to it that made it look much like a typical digital watch one would find at a Wal-Mart.

"Since some of the components were obviously a little too ancient when I first tried to configure the thing, myself and Ethan had to literally take the communicator apart and replace the components, if not get rid of some." Hayley explained.

"What did you do?" Kat asked.

"Well, we put in a new sound chip so it sounds a little more clearer than before, and we replaced the old Ranger chime with our own signature one, and of course, we put in a LCD crystal and some other little things so it'll _work_, not just _look_, like a watch, but it still does what it's really meant to do." Ethan explained.

"The only thing that we had to reluctantly get rid of was the teleportation function." Hayley said.

"Y' know, speaking of which, how come you and Hayley weren't able to create something like that, doc?" Conner asked. "It definitely would've helped us out in a lot of ways."

"We tried to, but it was just way, way too complex for us to create that kind of function, plus we didn't have any resources to do it, and even the most advanced technology on Earth wouldn't be enough to even make a prototype of it." Tommy answered, remembering the many sleepless nights where he and Hayley would spend hours and hours on the mainframe trying to create a teleportation function and coming up with absolutely nothing. As a result, they had no choice but to scrap it altogether.

"So it still works like before, but it also works (and looks) like a regular watch and I can still use it to communicate with you guys?" Kat asked.

"Yeah." Hayley replied. "Its main function still works, all we did was take out/update some things so it'll work better than it did before. Go ahead, try it."

As Kat looked at her communicator again, she saw the all-too-familiar button below the lower part of the communicator and pressed it. Immediately the Dino-Thunder chime sounded off from Tommy and his student's bracelets.

"Testing, Testing." Kat said into the speaker, which still took up most of the communicator (except for the middle, which was of course, the LCD screen itself.). "Can you guys hear me?"

"Loud and clear." Tommy said into his bracelet.

"So what do you think?" Ethan asked.

"I like it." Kat answered with a smile. "And you were right, it looks and works better than before. Thanks guys."

"No problem." Ethan said sincerely.

"So…I guess this makes it official now, doesn't it?" Kat asked rhetorically as she looked from her communicator to her boyfriend.

"You already were a part of the team." Tommy said as he put a hand on Katherine's shoulder. "Hey, it's like the saying goes, 'Once a Ranger, always a Ranger'."

"And that's a fact." Kira said as she beamed at Kat.

"Well, I guess if that's that, then there's only one thing left to do." Ethan said.

"What's that?" Kat asked.

Ethan then looked at Conner, who then nodded with a grin before he stepped forward and with his fist clenched, thrust out his left hand with his red bracelet, followed by Ethan doing the same, then Kira, and then Trent. Sighing in amusement, but feeling no less the same as his students were, Tommy joined them as well, with each of the fivesome's fists forming a circle of sorts.

When all eyes turned to Kat she then looked at each of her new friends, and Tommy as well. As she did she then looked at her communicator, finding herself going into a semi-trance as she did. When she had passed on the power to Cassie years ago, Kat felt that as hard as it had been to give it up, she knew that she was starting a new chapter in her life, and as such, her time as a Ranger had come to an end, and it was time to pass the torch to a new generation. And when she had, Kat had believed that she would never be a Ranger again, even though at times she would dream of wanting to don the power once more, even if only just for old time's sake.

But now, in a series of strange events, what she had thought would only be just a dream had become reality. Not only that, but with Tommy on the team as well…in a lot of ways, it seemed as if all the stars had indeed aligned just right to where a small dream of hers had come to fruition in the best of ways.

With this realization also came another realization that now she wouldn't have to worry about sitting on the bench, and that now she would be able to face those dangers along with Tommy and the others…whatever it is those dangers may be.

With a warm smile on her face, Kat then placed her fist between Tommy's and Kira's, completing the circle.

As she did though, the bracelets and the communicator started to glow with their respective colors. As they glowed, energy streams then emitted from the six devices and met in the middle of the joining, converging onto each other and forming a faint image of the Dino-Thunder symbol before fading out.

Tommy then turned to his girlfriend and smiled a bright smile.

"Welcome to the team, Kat."

Kat blushed. "Thanks Tommy."

Tommy smiled again before nodding slightly to her, to which Kat nodded back, and when they looked at Conner, Kira, Trent, and Ethan, they smiled and nodded to them. At first the four teens were confused, but then in a split-second they caught on, and with one great shout, Conner, Ethan, Kira, Trent, Tommy,, Kat and even Hayley said a phrase that hadn't been said in the longest time, but is still a phrase for _all_ time.

"POWER RANGERS!"

--

AN: Finally! Y'know, I wonder if I've beaten Nintendo's record for having the most delays, let's see…hmmm, nope, not yet. Well, anyways, how many of you already guessed what the disguise was going to be? If you knew it was going to be the communicator, then you guys catch on a lot more than I thought. I hope you guys enjoyed this installment and it was what you hoped it would be. Well, I'm off to work now, and again, I hope you guys enjoy it, and I hope it'll whet your appetite for more to come. Take it easy, and as Optimus Prime would say best: "Transform, and roll out!"


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